japanese snakeheads

[guppy]

Sorry no pics but something I found amusing. I read about this in The Smithsonian Magazine, Feb. 2005 issue, in the late 1800s the northern snakehead was introduced into Japan for sport fishing, in 1925 the large mouth bass was also introduced. Since then the bass has devastated snakehead populations, the bass have a taste for the dense schools of juvie snakeheads.

Frankenfish my left,,, ear.

 

[softturtle]

That is very interesting. Big bad SH taking a hit from LMB. I guess I can beleive it, LMB aren't weak.

 

[fshgk]

strange it's the opposite hear

 

[ShadowVengance]

i wouldn't doubt it, LMB are tough aggressive dudes.

 

[CentralMayhem]

i bet per capita there are more LMB than SH's in ANY body of water in the US where they both exist. the juvenile LMB would be able to pick off the SH's juveniles all day long whereas the SH juvies would have to chase an LMB down and shred it as it couldnt fit it in its mouth and swallow it whole. i know some SH's will survive to adult hood, but i dont think that they are actually TAKING OVER as some people say! they are definietly detrimental to the environment though because they are predators therefore they affect all other predators by dining on their food sources. once the predators chain is messed up the whole ecosystem can go to crap from the top of the chain to the bottom

 

[turtall]

Look at your avatar, Dude! What is the TOP of the food chain?

 

[softturtle]

i bet per capita there are more LMB than SH's in ANY body of water in the US where they both exist.

My favorite fishing hole (willow slough) was just drained last summer becuase the only fish in there besides carp and big (breeder size) LMB was snakeheads. They said that the snakeheads far out numbered the other fish. The panfish in the lake... wiped out. I went and looked at the fish they kept (they dug out a big ditch through the bottom of the lake and put any native breeder size fish in it) after draining the lake. Sad sight.

 

[CentralMayhem]

bummer, maybe the other fish werent actually native fish in the lake. maybe it was stocked and then the newly introduced foreigners were better adapted to that environment? who knows that sucks for the lake though

 

[guppy]

I agree that snakeheads should not be introduced where they are not native, neither should bass or any other fish, I was just amused that one valued non-native fish was doing so much damage to the population of another, I would bet that both have damaged the populations of the natives. Here in the Pacific north west many small bodies of water that used to contain native chubs and shiners are now homes to only gambusia and sunfish.