Gachua 'Bengali' care.

[Outlander]

Hi everyone,
I`ve just registered on the forum today. I`m fairly new to fish keeping, and my passion is for snakeheads! I bought my 1st S/H (C bleheri) about a year ago now and he is well and in full colour! A truly beautiful specimen. My 2nd fish is a C Pulchura. Again a cracking fish in full colour (now the temp has dropped a bit).

Keeping single fish is all well & good, but I wanted to try my hand at breeding these fascinating fish, and two days ago I bought a group of 4 "C Gachua Bengali 'orange'. They look VERY much like C sp 'Turquoise' to me(Their flanks have a sky blue sheen). Anyway, they are very small (7~9cm) and I`ve fed them frozen bloodworm and mini mealworms up to now, but how often should I feed them per day? Also the largest fish is very aggressive to the others. Is it natural for such small fish to be this nasty?

The tank is 90cm x 45cm x 45cm, has 5 caves/retreats and is planted with Anubius, Microsorium, 10 big A/swords, Bacopa, Anacharis, Hygrophilia, and Cryptocoryne balansae. Water temp is 23c. PH 6.5.

Any advice on keeping or breeding this type of Gachua would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Dave.

 

[Freakdaddy]

Hi Dave and welcome to the forum

Your right the Turq & Bengals are almost identical!!

How ever last year I bred the Bengals and a friend bred The Turqs,the young of the Turqs have an eye spot at the rear of the dorsal the Bengals do not.(the rest is for the genetasists to sort out LOL)

Bengali's are a cave spawning mouth brooder(Dads job) the female patrols their patch.
Both will herd the young to where they want them or swallow them and then pass them out through a hole behind the gill plate where they want them this only last for a week or so then they give on that endless task

see my vid here...http://www.youtube.com/user/Plecoman#p/u/3/RDOgwRm8gO4

Be aware though that these particular gachua are Sub Tropical i.e part of the year they are in cold water,its when things warm up that its breeding time.

mum supplies feeder eggs for the young which can be enhanced as they grow with dried Artemia eggs then pellets of encreasing size.(captive bred Channa are easily moved on to pellet food this way).

4ft is a minimum tank size for a group of these fish.

The aggression is probably down to staking claims on territory as its all new to them.

More caves than fish is the key to a happy tank with these animals also floating plant cover real or fake is a must.

Diet is mainly pellets(meaty) frozen prawns and mealworms.

Feed once per day when growing and 2-3 times a week when grown.

The maximum size for these fish would appear to be around 5" which is actually smaller than the Orientalis which is commonly touted as the smallest Snakehead!

 

[Outlander]

Hi Freakdaddy, thanks for the warm welcome and advice.

Your not going to believe this, but it was your video that inspired me to have a go at breeding S/H`s!!!!!
I saw it on You Tube a while a go now, and since then I`ve been scouring around for S/H breeding info. Congrats on the breeding success btw.

Well it seems as though I have a group of Turq`s as mine DO have a metallic blue eye spot at the rear of their dorsal fin.

It`s also nice to know that this type of Gachua doesn`t get to big.If a pair forms I will stick with the 3ft tank and use it as a breeding tank though because I`ve not got the luxury of lot`s of space I`m afraid.

Turk`s are sub tropical too yes? Could you tell me what temperature you dropped your water down to to kick start the breeding off? Would 18 ~ 19c be low enough?

Thanks again Dave.

 

[Red Devil]

i love snakeheads.. get those pics up.. welcome again..!!!

 

[Outlander]

Took some photo`s but can`t upload them aaarrrggghh!!

Anyone.. Is 18c low enough for Indian Gachua (sp Turquoise) before the breeding season?

 

[Freakdaddy]

Took some photo`s but can`t upload them aaarrrggghh!!

Anyone.. Is 18c low enough for Indian Gachua (sp Turquoise) before the breeding season?

18 is fine for them.(thats still warm in the scheme of things).
Just over the northern boarder from Bengal is Nepal and the Himmalayas so just imagine how cold that water can get!!

As for photos try hosting them somewhere like Photobucket and then just copy and paste the link into your post ..

Thusly

 

[Outlander]

OK so the cold isn`t a problem, cheers for that.
As for photo`s I meant I couldn`t upload from my camera/phone for some reason. Done it before, but not having it this time. Thanks for the info though.
The pic is of your 'bengali' right? He looks in pristine condition matey. Lovely fish. Can you sex these and Turq`s visually by fin colour or width of head?
As for the other thing...Yeah I`ve found it months ago.(wink)

 

[Freakdaddy]

OK so the cold isn`t a problem, cheers for that.
As for photo`s I meant I couldn`t upload from my camera/phone for some reason. Done it before, but not having it this time. Thanks for the info though.
The pic is of your 'bengali' right? He looks in pristine condition matey. Lovely fish. Can you sex these and Turq`s visually by fin colour or width of head?
As for the other thing...Yeah I`ve found it months ago.(wink)

If you have a group then its easy the females are more "robust"....fatter LOL