Future Snakehead Tank.

[Oplr]

Here is my tank at the moment:

I know there are goldfish in this tank, they are being moved to a different tank when I have finished this tank off. At the moment there is white gravel as seen as I have stuck a blank sheet of black printing paper around the back of the tank to make the green of the plants stand out. The plants in the tank are fake at the moment.

I want to make this tank into a beautiful tank for a snakehead that can fit in it, at the moment I'm looking at either a rainbow snakehead or dwarf.
Could someone please help me choose between them or offer me advice, I'd prefer one that tries to escape less for a start lol, one that is more active, less picky with food and freindlier.
I'm unsure if snakeheads are aware of their owners? Lol.
Looking at the tank does it look secure enough for a snakehead or would I need to weigh down the lid with something?
I would like to be able to buy the snakeheads food from the supermarket, so frozen prawns or mussles etc, would each of the above take these as their diet?

I was wondering if the snakeheads benefit from real plants as a pose to fake, if so what do real plants need to grow like tanks seen on google, all brightly green with plants flowing all over the place ( I've never really had plants in tank. )
Anyone got any pointers on how to plan the tank out too? I was thinking of going into my college of building and salvaging some 40mm drainage pipe, the pipe used for guttering and sinks etc, washing it off properly and maybe laying it at the back of the tank with plants around it or laying the plants down and placing the pipe ontop of that can be a place for it to hide, if 40mm is too small I can get some guttering pipe. Would this work?

Do snakeheads need sand or is my current substrate ok?

All in all just looking for advice before I buy!

 

[tsoum]

Hey! To start off you should tell us how many liters is your tank. That's the biggest factor in deciding what fish you are going to keep.

Channa love planted tanks so they can cover behind blants. It makes them feel safe. Not all plants are difficult to keep. For example Anubias sp. Cyrptocorine sp. Echinodorus sp. Vallisneria sp. are all easy and undemanding plants. All they need is water, light and maybe a bit of fertilizer. Channa also like having Some floating plants to dim the aquarium, such as hydrocotyle leucocephala, pistia stratiotes, and lemna minor. All these should be readily available at your lfs.

I believe your lamp is one of cool white color. I suggest you change it to warm white since it looks much more natural. I think channas don't really care about gravel, but sand will look so much more natural IMO.

All channas will try to escape if they don't like it in there tank. It's easy to secure the tank lid just by placing something heavy, so they won't be able to push it open. I'm not sure if they will be able to identify you, "opir" as their owner, but after some time they will become accustomed to you! As far as I know channas aren't very fussy eaters and will accept most foods. If they feel comfortable and secure they will be active. But you should know that they aren't the deadly predator waiting for what will fall into their tank to devour, moving constantly through their tank. They enjoy hiding among plants.

You can check out fish_sauce's thread below. I believe it's the enviroment that channas will feel nice in.

 

[Oplr]

Hey! To start off you should tell us how many liters is your tank. That's the biggest factor in deciding what fish you are going to keep.

Channa love planted tanks so they can cover behind blants. It makes them feel safe. Not all plants are difficult to keep. For example Anubias sp. Cyrptocorine sp. Echinodorus sp. Vallisneria sp. are all easy and undemanding plants. All they need is water, light and maybe a bit of fertilizer. Channa also like having Some floating plants to dim the aquarium, such as hydrocotyle leucocephala, pistia stratiotes, and lemna minor. All these should be readily available at your lfs.

I believe your lamp is one of cool white color. I suggest you change it to warm white since it looks much more natural. I think channas don't really care about gravel, but sand will look so much more natural IMO.

All channas will try to escape if they don't like it in there tank. It's easy to secure the tank lid just by placing something heavy, so they won't be able to push it open. I'm not sure if they will be able to identify you, "opir" as their owner, but after some time they will become accustomed to you! As far as I know channas aren't very fussy eaters and will accept most foods. If they feel comfortable and secure they will be active. But you should know that they aren't the deadly predator waiting for what will fall into their tank to devour, moving constantly through their tank. They enjoy hiding among plants.

You can check out fish_sauce's thread below. I believe it's the enviroment that channas will feel nice in.

The tank is 160 UK litres. Measures at 36"x15"x18".
I was thinking of using fake plants, do snakeheads prefer real plants or are they just to hide amongst? For a surface plant i was looking at duckweed, will this do for them?

I checked out that tank, theres a bit of a difference lol, that tank looks professionally done, I've never even grown a plant in my tank. I'd rather set a more realistic goal then to achieve that lol.
I know they like to hide alot which is one of the reasons why I like them.
I'll check out the warm white bulb and get hold of one too.

 

[fish_sauce]

The tank is 160 UK litres. Measures at 36"x15"x18".
I was thinking of using fake plants, do snakeheads prefer real plants or are they just to hide amongst? For a surface plant i was looking at duckweed, will this do for them?

I checked out that tank, theres a bit of a difference lol, that tank looks professionally done, I've never even grown a plant in my tank. I'd rather set a more realistic goal then to achieve that lol.
I know they like to hide alot which is one of the reasons why I like them.
I'll check out the warm white bulb and get hold of one too.

My tank is in no way professionally done, but thanks for the compliment. All the plants I have are very low maintainance. I'm not using any CO2. I do however, have a timer. That makes a big difference. My plants receive 10 hours of light a day. You should try a variety of plants, and see what lives and dies in your tank. Plants make snakeheads feel more at home, and they also eat up nitrite.

 

[Oplr]

My tank is in no way professionally done, but thanks for the compliment. All the plants I have are very low maintainance. I'm not using any CO2. I do however, have a timer. That makes a big difference. My plants receive 10 hours of light a day. You should try a variety of plants, and see what lives and dies in your tank. Plants make snakeheads feel more at home, and they also eat up nitrite.

Kudos to the tank then, looks good! How do timers work, and how much do they cost?

 

[fish_sauce]

Kudos to the tank then, looks good! How do timers work, and how much do they cost?

This is my timer. You can find them in any hardware store for a few bucks. People use them for Christmas lights, plants, and all sorts of other projects.

 

[tsoum]

Most of the plants are low maintainance as fish_sauce said. All they need is water and light! Duckweed would be okay, but i suggest you try to find some other plant, because although they do provide a dense shade, they do not have long roots, and SH like swimming among them.

Timers are really cheap (you cand find analogue like the one above at 3-4€ and electronic at ~10&#8364. Just to give you an idea of what it could cost. What they do is to turn on and off your lights at preset times. It helps both the fish and the plants be more comfortable, because they have a steady "schedule" just like in nature. They are very usefull when you're away, and can't turn on and off the light.

 

[Oplr]

Most of the plants are low maintainance as fish_sauce said. All they need is water and light! Duckweed would be okay, but i suggest you try to find some other plant, because although they do provide a dense shade, they do not have long roots, and SH like swimming among them.

Timers are really cheap (you cand find analogue like the one above at 3-4€ and electronic at ~10€). Just to give you an idea of what it could cost. What they do is to turn on and off your lights at preset times. It helps both the fish and the plants be more comfortable, because they have a steady "schedule" just like in nature. They are very usefull when you're away, and can't turn on and off the light.

Is there a adapter that will change my lighting unit to a 2 prong plug? I'm looking for plants at the moment, think the only thing my LFs sells are amazon swords and driftwood.

 

[garyo]

Why would you want to change your plug to a two pin, the one in the picture is a foreign plug. the timers over here are designed for a standard 3 pin plug!

 

[Oplr]

I just quickly briefed over them online haha. Thought 2pin was something to do with the timer itself rather than the origin! So this thing automatically controls my light and i just plug it in and set a timer?