Channa in community tanks?

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Hydroholic

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 20, 2016
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West Bengal, India
I know this question will anger the purists but is it possible?
Can it be done?
I have seen several tanks on facebook and youTube where channids have been kept in community setups?
Are they temporary successes?
What species are safest to try?
Are they compatible with other bottomdwellers like plecos and stingrays?
Which are the species to try?
Thanks!
 
I believe the general consensus is no and if it works for a while it is most certainly temporary.
 
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They should kept as a species only tank. Keep I mind they are subtropical and the fish u mentioned are tropical. Will lead to risk infection with Channa.

The other is that ur seeing pleuros as the community snakehead. These are usually the most common that may tolerate other fish. These are likely exceptions to the rule it an accident waiting to happen.
 
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D -DC- can help you as the answers given didn't help you.
 
D -DC- can help you as the answers given didn't help you.
Good lookin' out, I was trying to tag him but it wouldn't work haha. He has a huge write up on this. He originally thought you could comm. them, then after trial after trial with different species I believe he has hopped the fence so to speak and now states they are species only.
 
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I have my auranti with a blood parrot, red Oscar, large tinfoil barb and 2 koi and haven't had a problem, not saying I won't have one but haven't yet, and yes I know they r sub tropical before anyone gets excited, my tank sits around 74f max
 
Apart from the lucky Pleuro or Maruloides, there is no story of a success long term.

If you keep tropical temps, they will die. Not "possibly", they will.
If you have lucky tropical fishes that can take the temp drops, they will get killed. The only exception would be with a fish much bigger, much more fierce than the channa, and it'll end up with the channa hiding all the time, and this will eventually result on it letting itself die.

I've actually attempted it, before I got to know better, I had Bleheris with much more dominant fishes, mostly due to their size. When the balance had been made, and the other fishes weren't able to basically rip the bleheris to shreds, the channas simply sat in the corner, usually on top of each other, and didn't eat, barely gulped for air as they didn't dare going up, and every single one of them died.

I had to keep my Aurantis in my comm for about 6 months, it all went well for 5, or so I thought. Turns out a few fishes that I figured were hiding have disappeared, some have been literally ripped in half (I do mean literally, I found pieces either sides of the tank), and all of that happened overnight. They were peaceful, and the day after, they were denying any other living creature the right to exist. That includes an Oscar three twice their size... We all know Oscars to be fishes that don't back away. This brute of a fish was pressed in a corner, showing his side whenever one of them patrolled the tank, scared to death... so to speak.

So tl;dr: Channas aren't meant for community. The only way it ever works is with one or multiple fishes terrorized, suffering, or worse.

With that being said, I may have found myself six pleuros. If I indeed to get them, they'll be in a tank with my Odoes and my Ery ery. My only big enough tank to separate the fishes if something bad happens is housing my Aurantis, so there basically is no hope if a disaster happens except getting rid of either my favorite fish, or the fish I've had the most fun keeping. I am aware of that, but unlike any sub tropical channa story, there are a few VERY lucky people who have kept Pleuros or Maruloides in comms. Not many, but there are some.

Hell, even my TL;DR is too long to read... I should stop trying to convince you, in the end, we all are dead set on our ideas when we have them, we only ask to hope to help our conscience. ;)
 
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