new blue rainbow channa owner

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M

maudsley

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 15, 2008
37
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Wirral - UK
just got back from a trip to world of water manchester (cheers for the stock tipoff danny) to pick up my first snakeheads. it was a choice of rainbow or blue rainbow. i went for the blue rainbow as they were slightly larger n brightly coloured. their about 2.5" long with dark bodies great blue fins, one is more light grey bodied with blue fins. I've currently got the tank temp set at 20 / 22. this it them temp I've read up on for these channa being sub tropical. is this what you experienced keepers recommend temp wise? also will these dwarf snakeheads eat live feeder fish, if so whats best? and how many / how often? what else do you guys recommend to feed them on, frozen / defrosted prawns n muscles etc?

thanks ian
 
Welcome to the Club!

Species name is Channa andrao, they are one of the smallest of the dwarves . They will eat live feeders but i find they do better on an insect diet. They love snails, meal worms, crickets etc. I feed all my subtropicals on gut loaded meal worns that i breed myself and pellets, ill mix in many other insects as treats depending on season/availability.

Temperature wise your right in the mid range where mine sit in the spring and fall. Being subtropical they will benifit from an unheated tank to allow for seasonal as well as day/night fluctuations.

Ideal cycle allows for summers with highs aroubd 24-25c, winter lows should average 14-15c. With short summers. I just follow the seasons, here in canada my unheated
basement tends to sit right where they beed it year round.

Hope that helps!
 
nothing more to add to DCs commrent !!
 
excellent guys thanks for the advise. i researched as much as possible but i just wanted to ask people with first hand experience of these fish. with you saying they are one of the smallest what sort of size should i expect these to grow too?
 
also is there any other dwarf channa i could put in with these? are the normal red style rainbows the same spices, size etc when fully grown. i was hopping they be a little bigger fully grown but it missed that on my research as i thought these would be 6/7 inches fully grown. well as these are one of the smaller types how many can i keep in my 200ltr tank. i only bought 3 thinking they had a lot to grow. as they are 3" now sorry not 2.5" as i typed earlier
 
They will grow to around 4-5" , no they are not the same species as the other rainbows. Those would be channa bleheri.

Adding another dwarf species won't work out well. Channa species do not mix well together, they'll fight to the death.

You could probably put a couple more into the tank but keep in mind that as they mature a pair will form and the rest will be bullied by the pair. With that sized tank and enough hisethey likly wont get killed but they will likly spend most of their lives hiding from the pair.
 
thanks DC. do channa bleheri grown much larger than the ones I've have got then as I'm now thinking I've bought the wrong ones as i want bigger fish really than 4-5"
 
Yes bleheri get a bit bigger ~6-7".
 
Right I've taken the blue rainbows back and got 3 Channa blehrei. Rainbow snakeheads as the shop told me the blue rainbows were the same fish and grow to same size. Which you guys pointed out to me was not the case as they would be much smaller.

So is there anything else I need to know Abt these rainbow bleheris DC?

same water temps etc? How often do u water change and how much water etc?

Cheers guys
 
Shops often confuse the 2 species, ive seen them incorrectly labeled as "blue bleheri" more often then by the correct name.

As for care it's all the same. I find channa prefer minimal water changes. 25% at a time max , and only as frequently as needed to keep nitrates in check.

I keep my tanks so heavily planted that nitrates are never an issue so I try to match my water changes with the seasons just like i do with temps and feeding. I do No water changes or top ups in the fall or winter. I top the tank up in the spring and do a few 25% water changes in the spring. I keep the tank topped up in the summer with a couple more 25% water changes in the summer. Then in fall I stop and let the water levels drop along with the temps.

That's just how I keep them , and having fully cycled and heavily planted tanks is important for it to work. Everyones tank care will be a bit different but the important thing to keep them happy is only do small water changes as needed.
 
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