channa pleurophthalma

[chronick]

Wow, beautiful.. They have really nice colours..
What do you feed them?

I personally use pellet food purchased from a local trout farm. The pellets are super cheap and the protein content is about 50% so they grow fast and healthy

brilliant colours!! ive got channa bleheri and i hope when there bigger they end up with colours like that! weldone mate and great tank/setup! im feeding bloodworm cubes at the minute whilst there young

I really suggest not feeding blood worms with pleuros, i originally started with 9 and 3 of them got addicted to blood worms and never switched into eating pellets. blood worms are 90% water so as they got bigger they began so starve and eventually died from a lack of nutrition. The sooner you can get them eating high protein content food the better.

thanks for the compliments everyone

 

[RD.]

Nice group of pleuros, did you get these from Charles?


I agree on the BW's, poor choice of food for any fish, but at the same time I wouldn't feed trout chow with 50% protein, and most likely a high fat content, to any channa once it reaches several inches in length. At production levels (adult) even trout chow has reduced protein & fat levels, more along the lines of 40% protein, and 10-12% fat. I've been researching dietary levels in channa lately & I can't find any studies/papers that support high protein/high fat levels in feed for semi-adult to adult channa. 45-50% protein levels are only used for fry & fingerling channa. YMMV

 

[chronick]

Nice group of pleuros, did you get these from Charles?


I agree on the BW's, poor choice of food for any fish, but at the same time I wouldn't feed trout chow with 50% protein, and most likely a high fat content, to any channa once it reaches several inches in length. At production levels (adult) even trout chow has reduced protein & fat levels, more along the lines of 40% protein, and 10-12% fat. I've been researching dietary levels in channa lately & I can't find any studies/papers that support high protein/high fat levels in feed for semi-adult to adult channa. 45-50% protein levels are only used for fry & fingerling channa. YMMV

I purchased them from a store called North America Pets, and as far as i know charles has never imported any pleuros. And yes, I agree entirely with your analysis of pellets and I do of course feed a variety of food (including market prawns and smelts) but i do think that higher protein diets regardless of fat content is best for them until they reach a 5 or 6 inches. I have indeed heard that channa shouldn't have a high fat content in their diet but i think this is for more of the dwarf channa and less active ones. Pleuros are open water snakeheads and never stop moving so i think the fat content in the food has much less of an effect on them. I for one haven't noticed any obvious effects from the pellets and the colors are as vibrant as ever

 

[RD.]

Ok, I was just curious as I saw that you were in BC & thought of Charles. A friend of mine here in town picked up some semi-adult pleuros from someone in the GTA, and strangely enough they now not only eat pellets, they actually refuse to eat MP, cut up tilapia, etc.

I've never been a big fan of snakeheads, but his group of pleuros quickly changed that. Incredible fish.

While I understand that pleuros are active open water fish, I still wouldn't feed a tropical warm water fish a high fat commercial diet designed for cold water species, that's sole purpose it to put on the maximum amount of growth in the minimal amount of time. Fast growth doesn't always equate to healthy growth. Fatty degeneration of the liver doesn't happen overnight, and it's not something that you will see by simply viewing a fish in an aquarium. Perhaps not an issue if one is feeding a large mix of foods, but more of a concern for those who use those types of pellets as a staple. My previous comment was directed at the latter scenario.

Again, very nice group of fish that you have.

 

[PhullTank57]

if you saw these fish in person it wouldn't be a question. the colors are amazing

I agree, seeing in person compared to pics or even a video... will make one have a different outlook on how beautiful these fish really are.

Very nice group of pleuros, chronic. Thanks for sharing!