snakeheads keeping conditions

[pallestopheles]

These ones were collected on Sri Lanka.........

They lived in a waste drainage of a cinnamon Plantage!
The only fresh water they have recived was from the women that wahs their clothes in there.......with soap!
So I called them Soap gachua!!!

They have a complete different clour in the dorsal fin!
Also they are more shy.......than other gachuas I kept

They grow very slow..........

There is only one wildcaught couple of this type in the world!
A friend of mine brought them to me after his holidays in Sri Lanka!

I have breed them quite often now.......

 

[pallestopheles]

This is a gachua from Lake Inle in Myanmar..........

I have given them to a friend of mine in Berlin and he has managed to breed them now!

It is a quite aggressiv species.......

the marbled colouration of the caudal fin is typical for gachuas coming from Lake Inle!

Pictures of the breeding Inle gachua you can find here,my friend has posted them there :

http://www.igl-home.de/

and if this is not working You may use this link:

http://board.raubsalmler.de/viewtopic.php?t=5171

They have changed their colour during breeding process!

 

[pallestopheles]

This is a gachua / limbatus that I was able to collect on the Koh Chang Island in Thailand!

They live in a small mountainstream close to a waterfall called Than Mayom waterfall!

There will be picture of the habitat and a picture of them short time after catching.....

Subadults of this type show a lot of tiny dots on the gill cover!
They disapear when they are fully matured

Adults have a huge vartiy of changing their colours........

The problem is,that they can be very agressiv to each other.

If they are stressed they might climb out of the water..........staying outside and hide there.........you can see one picutre where a fish is lying on the filter!

 

[pallestopheles]

Ohhhh........

I forgot to post the picture of the gachua that climbed out for hiding!

Here it is!

 

[pallestopheles]

This one is collected in Krabi / Thailand........

They grow quite large , up to 23-25cm
They have a very impressive colour.......for my opinion one of the most beautyfull gachua types I have ever seen!
A friend of my catched them...........
He gave them the name:
TH 3/02
this means:
TH= Thailand
3 = Location 3
02 = year 2002

 

[pallestopheles]

This one............hmm I am not qute sure!

I have been told that they were from the central of Thailand!

But I am not sure at all..........because the fish shows signs of beeing an indian gachua!

But no matter at all......it is definitly a beauty..........and thats,why I want it to share!

 

[pallestopheles]

The last gachua or limbatus I would like to show to you was coming from Khao Lak in Thailand!

Unfortunatly the habitat was destroyed by the Tsunami in 2006!

Thes one were real massive monsters with a really big head and a size of about 25cm..........

Unfortunatly I had only one couple of them..........and while the male was breeding ,the femal has tried to swallow a little bass that was swimming with them!
It was to big for the snakehead and so it died!

That is one cause why I tell you not to put any other fish within your snakehead is better!

 

[pallestopheles]

Some last words about Channa gachua or whatever we call this way!

I hope that I was able to give you a lttle view on the different types of Channa gachua!
I also hope,that you now know ,why I personally think it is important to use the habitat name withing several Channa gachua / limbatus species!

Because not every gachua is only a gachua!
There are sooooo many types of them ,that I think we do not know anything about them!
I am not a scientist,only a guy whos has snakeheads as a passion............But to make the work easier for the scientists we should use habitat names and should keep the habitats clean..........so ,do not crossbreed any types of gachua!
We should until we know what the fish definitly really is!+

Cheers
Pascal

 

[timskie]

Very informative when you can could you please do lucius,pulchra and micropeltes.Id be so greatfull thanks.

 

[pallestopheles]

Channa harcourtbutleri

This one is a very close relative of Channa gachua.........
It was discribed by Annandale in 1918.
The native people call this fish:nga ohn-ma

Dr. Ralf Britz,a friend of mine ,and Heok Hee Ng have done a Revalidation on this fish in 1999.........

Ch. harcourtbutleri belongs to the dwarf species as well and is endemic to Lake inle in Myanmar and its surroundings........

The fish is not often mentioned in the Aquaristic,but from time to time there were Imports noticed!
Most fo the so called Ch. harcoutbutleri imports tunred out to be Ch. gachua!
I have never seen a real Ch. harcourtbutleri in such an import yet!

The fish I have were from Dr. Ettrich, Germany,whos has collected them by himself........
After seeing pictures of my Ch.gachua spec Inle lake, Ralf contacted me and told me,that this fish is that of which he thinks it will be Channa harcourtbutleri.......
I gave him some fin samples for genetic analysis.....now we have to wait until we have the results!
it is a very rare fish and I only know my couple in the world in captivity!

The significant difference to Channa gachua is a complete different colouration and a black-white painting underneath the lower jaw..........

The grew not larger than 20cm........

My couple is about 6 or 7 years old now!

This species is sometimes very aggressiv to other fish and to their own species.......a friend of mine who has recived some juveniles from me ,has lost all other fish during the night because of the harcourtbutleris!
They have killed them during the light was out.....also bigger fish than themselves!

Here in Germany we call them the black devils....or *******fish!

Channa harcourtbutleri is very cannibalistic when they were young and you have to monitor them and feed them well....if you want some to survive!
Ch. harcourtbutleri is a mouthbrouder and egg feeder , just as Ch. gachua

They need a lot of hiding places ,because of their aggressive behaviour!
The temperatures should be in the subtropical range..about 22-24°C
Tank size: minimum 1m x 50cm x 50 cm (larger is better)
The water parameters are unimportant....you can keep them in soft and hard water!

They eat everything what fits in their mouth!
My ones feeding on mussel meat,insekts,worms,frozen fish and shrimps