Snakehead ID help

[addicted2aquariums420]

These were labeled "fire and ice" my a LFS just north of where I live. They we purchased about 6-7 months ago and I have not noticed any fire and ice markings...can someone help me ID these 2? thanks =)


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[JayP]

Channa Stewartii maybe im no pro at Id`s but referencing the pics you added and a Channa Reference from the Web.......
how big is it now ?

 

[addicted2aquariums420]

About 5-6 inches now. We originally purchased 6 to try and get a pair and are now down to 2. They are extremely aggressive like fire and ice but have little to no colour


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[bottles]

Hard to tell.
It is not Stewartii or Fire and Ice. Looks like a gachua from Thailand maybe?

 

[JayP]

After looking and comparing with mine which are from India I think Bottles may be right Gachua from India are similar to those from Thailand
but India Gachua have wider heads and more color on the tails and fins.

 

[bottles]

The only reason that I guessed Thailand is because my friend had some that looked similar when he first got them. Gachuas are found in so many places, and I don't have a good enough eye to tell where it's from, so I just guessed. But it doesn't have the red on the eye that Fire and Ice have.

 

[-DC-]

I'd guess it's a gaucha variant as well, likely out of Thailand. They tend to have less red's and blues in the body and fin, and from what I've seen the indian variants all have some amount of red below the eye, where the thai variants do not.

Another thing worth mentioning is that stress can also cause them to have washed out colors. to rule that out it would help to know what your water parameters like? How often do you do WC's and do you ad salt ?? Do you have any full tank shot's ? Also it looks quite bright in the pic's are you using floating cover ? All are factors that could effect the snake heads comfort which will effect their colors drastically.

 

[addicted2aquariums420]

I was waiting to see if the red would develop as they got older but nothing. Are gachua aggressive? These guys latch on and don't let go and they've killed off the entire cleaning crew lol


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[-DC-]

Yes they can be quite aggressive, especially once a pair forms they tend to kill off everything else.

I've seen SOME have luck with tankates who don't compete for food or hiding and stay out of the way basically dither types. But in my experience anything that get's into their caves, dares to challenge them or competes for food will be killed off.

Even those perfect dither tank mates only work sometimes, and when they do they will still get killed from time to time. Another thing to consider is that if breeding occurs everything else will be killed right away.

Sort answer, this species is best kept solo, if your lucky enough to have a pair who get along you've already got more tank mates then most people get away with lol.

 

[addicted2aquariums420]

I will check parameters tonight and post the results but as of right now im not certain. We started out with 6 and only 2 really flourished, they killed the smallest one and before they could kill the other 3 I gave them to another MFK member who traded me for some floating top cover but the snakeheads ate most of it and the rest died. We try to do a 25% w/c once a week, some weeks the snakeheads tolerate our hands in there but majority of the time we end up getting bit.


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