Pair of Channa Gachua

[Michael101]

Hey guys

Been a while since ive posted. Been more into the marine side but now back to monsterfish haha. Ive recently managed to get hold of 2 smallish (10-12cm) Gachua.
Not sure of their exact origin. They were confirmed gachua by another member on the forum who spotted them at one of our local pet shops being sold under the incorrect name.

Just a few questions as i have read contradicting things everywhere.
They are currently being held in a 180 planted and fake plant setup with driftwood (and more to come) as the only two inhabitants. Was keen on some small catfish but read that they should never be with any catfish.

They seemed to love bloodworm and couldnt get enough, but having recently moved the tank into my room and rearranging they have become very shy and barely come out to eat ( its only been 2 days since the move). My questions are therefore, how shy are these fish and whats the optimal amount of hiding spots they should be given? Ive read that this species in particular is not shy and forms a "bond" with the owner, not needing to be as hidden as the other species?

Their tank is currently pretty densely planted and has plenty hiding spots for them so how long do you think it will take before they become less scarce? ( At night they swim around like phelps in the tank and have little regard for hiding?)

Secondly, ive read that bloodworm has relatively low nutritional value and have bought some carnivore pellets which they seem to not be interested in, also and perhaps the most strange to me, is the fact that they now share the tank with about 12 would have been feeder platties ( given their reputation i find this odd but im not complaining as the alternative is cheaper). So... what else can i try??

Thanks Guys

Will try upload some pics, but it might just be a FTS minus fish because they arent fond of me being in the same room let alone posing for pictures.

 

[Auranti]

I have 2 juvenile gachua in a heavily heavily planted tank with lots of driftwood and I still never see them. But i noticed that if i planted the tank till i can barely see through it, my snakeheads come out a lot more often. It helped with most of my snakeheads. It also helps if the tank is dim, so maybe you'd want to put lots of floating plants, this makes them feel very secure as well as i noticed they like to hide under my hornworts and within the roots of my hyacinth and water lettuce. As for the re arranging, give them some time, snakeheads can be very very shy. Since you have 2 gachuas, provide ample hiding space in case fights occurs. For the fish to first bond, its gotta feel comfortable. And i dont think any new snakehead will feel comfortable for the first few days, weeks or even months(in my experience) within purchase.

As for food source, use prawns/earthworms/mealworms/crickets/chopped up fish/feeder prawns, all these work well. I find crickets work best . For pellet training, you'd want to starve them for a while and introduce the pellets until they start taking them. Those pellets that they ignore, just scoop them out.

 

[Michael101]

@Auranti, thanks for your quick response! Do you have any pictures or links to pics of your current setups?
Ive been looking through the media lounge and it seems that what i considered densely planted is far off haha. my tank definitely looks to "clean" in the sense of too many open swimming areas and no brownish tinge from the wood. Ive always avoided real plants as i wasnt keen on the whole CO2 tank story. How much success do you guys have with plants without additional CO2 added to the system?

I also need more floating plants, does anyone in Cape Town know where i can get hold of duckweed or something similar?

 

[Auranti]

@Auranti, thanks for your quick response! Do you have any pictures or links to pics of your current setups?
Ive been looking through the media lounge and it seems that what i considered densely planted is far off haha. my tank definitely looks to "clean" in the sense of too many open swimming areas and no brownish tinge from the wood. Ive always avoided real plants as i wasnt keen on the whole CO2 tank story. How much success do you guys have with plants without additional CO2 added to the system?

I also need more floating plants, does anyone in Cape Town know where i can get hold of duckweed or something similar?

Sure thing. Some of my tanks arent as heavily planted as i would like them to be, cos the snakeheads keep digging the plants up time after time, i just gave up and dumped a whole lot of floating hornworts in there. They appreciate it though. And they seemed to not be afraid of my presence so i didnt really bother about those tanks. Sorry for the crappy photos.

 

[Michael101]

Your tanks look awesome! I definitely need to add some more plants. do you run co2 in your tanks?

 

[Auranti]

Thanks! Nope, i dont use C02.

 

[Michael101]

awesome! thanks for the advice man, with regards to the lack of feeding like they used to on the bloodworm. Could I take that as stress from the move and rearranging of the tank and expect it to return to normal again in a while?

 

[Michael101]

Here's a pic of my current setup

 

[Auranti]

They could be stressed, or just not hungry. I feed my SHs every 3 - 4 days. As for your set up, id advice you put a few pieces of big driftwood in there. Make lots of holes for them to swim in and out of as well as hide in and pretty soon you'll have happy gachuas :.

 

[-DC-]

It's probably just stress, Hiding at first is normal channa take a couple weeks to settle in, make sure the temp's aren't to warm as they are normally a sub-tropical species and high temps will add stress.

Floating cover will go a long way to help make them secure and get them out in the open more often and will also discourage jumping. Floating plants, pieces of wood and leaves all work, I use a mixture of them all. Snakeheads are not active fish but with the floating cover they will spend more time sitting out in the open. they are quite territorial as well chance are your pair will not get along one will likely start to outgrow the other, if it doesn't kill the tank mate off it will be forced to stay in hiding.

As for feeding Mine are pig's, they ate both chopped up insect feeders and pellets from day one. If you can get your hands on some meal worms to chop up, or pinhead crickets insects tend to get a good feeding response, blood worms might also work. Once they get eating you can convert them over to pellets very easily snakeheads once settled in are not picky eaters.