New setup

[Achilles1763]

Hello, I have a 350 litre tank free that I am considering setting up as a snakehead tank. It's L60 H24 W16 inches and will have a 500 litre external filter. I have only kept a rainbow snakehead before in a community set up (until It jumped out of the tank while at the fish shop while I was moving house last week) but clearly they need a species tank which would be the whole idea of this tank. I have keep a number of large predators before such as fahaka and large cichlids (now in my 7ft tank) so I have a reasonable amount of experience. Basically what species should I be looking at? should I go for a few fish from a smaller species (such as stewartii) or a single specimen like channa obscura? I like aggressive species particularly as i like to watch them hunt, live food (although not a sole food source obviously) is a big part of my feeding rotation for my fahaka and Jaguar cichlid. Any advice would be very much appreciated as looking after fish properly is important to me and all my other fish are very health and have grown very large!

 

[Madou]

Sounds like a great size for a pair of Auranti to me.
Though, while they're pigs all around the year, they need to be restrained from eating as much as once a week at most during colder times, which could be the opposite of what you're after if you want to watch them hunt and eat every day.

The only species who are going to be alright feeding every other day every day of the year are going to be the tropical species, and I cannot think of one that would fit that tank size (I'm sure others will find one I hadn't thought of).

If the feeding schedule of a sub-tropical is alright to you, though, I find Aurantis to be amazingly personable, and hand feeding them is rather thrilling if you're not afraid of a few bites.

 

[Achilles1763]

Ah cool, I have had a look at them online and they look amazing, and like you say feed like monsters. I am totally cool with the changing requirements for a feeding rotation based on their annual cycle. It sounds fascinating to try and mimic as close as possible the natural environs of the animal. All my other fish are tank bred, even my fahaka, and they adapt a lot better than wild fish. The hand feeding thing sounds great despite the finger threat, my fahaka hand feeds as she is very tame and calm (completely the opposite of what I was told when I bought her). I have a couple of questions: my water here in the UK is fairly hard, are they very susceptible to these issues? And are they easy to pair up? I have only seen one for sale online in the UK and it was £120! So getting any more than 2 is highly unlikely! Lastly I am guessing tank set up wise that 'underwater forest' is the best option. Thanks.

 

[Brucki]

water Parameters are not the big issue according to aurantimaculata, biut infact moist channa appreciate soft and light acidic Waters, Show better colours ,.... But for most ist not a must.

Pairing is THE problem. So buying two channa often Ends in one dead and one severly injured fish. Thats not the way to get an auranti pair (and in fact all other snakeheads, too).

Even if you can surely identify the genders (which can be really hard ) and you buy a male and a female, if they do not like each others ,they fight, and a species powerful and largegrowing like aurantimaculata fighting means deathfight. "If you wont leave my area I'll kill ya"

 

[-DC-]

If you enjoyed keeping jag's and puffers you won't regret keeping a snakehead!

+1 to what Brucki said , if you want to try for a pair of snakeheads you will have the best chances if you start with a group of 5-6 & raise them up together and hope that a pair forms from the group. If /when a pair forms they will then turn on the others violently. At that point remove all the others ASAP or they'll be killed off .

They also are very nice kept solo , they are quite bold and personable fish. Always catches people's attention right away as they swim up front and center to check out anyone who enters the room .

As for setup for Auranti they enjoy a dense floating cover , deep substrate and lots of bogwood/driftwood to create hides . Stick to low light tolerant plants because the floating cover will absorbe kist of the light. I also recommend sticking to plants that attach to wood like ferns, anubias & mosses . Auranti are diggers and cave builders anything rooted in the substrate is likly to be torn up .

 

[-DC-]

Oops double post

 

[Achilles1763]

Great! thanks for all the Intel gents, it's sounds like I have found my next wet pet then! Based on what you have told me I will probably not try and develop a pair. Given that all the specimens I have seen for sale are wild caught it must be very hard to get a collection of juveniles to try and form a pair. Furthermore breeding has never been much of a priority with me with my fish keeping. Its more to do with having an interesting big bitey fish I can interact with (Hence the fahaka and jag ) and they sound ideal. Tank set up wise, I think lots of tangled branches with Anubis, as suggested, and floating plans will look awesome. Thanks again.

 

[Madou]

I must say £120 sounds like the price for 3.
My wholesaler has XL ones (adults most likely) for 25€, which makes it about 60-80€ sale price, which is already absurd, but will never reach that high for smaller ones (Plus the chances for adults to pair up are ridiculously low ).

You can most probably find them for cheaper, and score 5 of them for £150-200.

Perhaps they are most expensive in the UK, but I see no reason for that to happen.

I must say a pair is twice as amazing as a single specimen, the behavior is insanely cute and cuddly, while remaining dangerous predators all the same!

Just a tip, when hand feeding, don't leave a finger away from your hand (usually my pinky ) because THAT will look more like food than whatever you may be holding that is not a mealworm xD

 

[-DC-]

Lol yes watch your fingers & never lean in over a tank when hand feeding channa unless u want to risk putting your nose on the menu!

My first Aurantimaculata would jump out of the water his full body length or more to snatch a meal worm from my hand. Was a great trick until I leaned over to fix a filter line and he came up at my face lol .

That goes for any hungry channa though lol Just last night one of my Pleuro's who's only 8" ish fired out of the water and bounced off the glass while I was trying to take a picture. It caught me off guard then I realized he was taking a swipe at the silver chain around my neck that caught the sunlight when I leaned in for pic!

 

[Achilles1763]

Ahh good idea thanks for that, they sound bloody amazing! I will need to be very careful as I have had a few close calls with my puffers, I wasn't paying enough attention and just put my finger in the tank during a water change to check the temp of the water mixture as i added more and my fahaka went for it! Luckily she bumped the tip with her nose as she opened her mouth and I was able to snatch my hand away in time. Given that she was 8 inches long at the time and can crush whole clams my finger could
Have got seriously shortened! Will need to be a lot more on the ball with the snakes then.

Okay, where do you sources your fish from? I normally get my fish via my lfs (who are great and can order most things) but I doubt that they will be able to get me 4 -5 juveniles. Is there somewhere I can'l order a few for delivery? I have not used mail order to get fish before (although I have considered it a number of times) and if anything is going to survive the trip it will be a channa.