New Friends, And Old Mates

[andywg]

Here's some nice pics of some new fish, and some getting bigger:

And a shot of the tank under less bright lighting:

Now for the Snakeheads. Some may remember we last saw them at this size:

And now they are more like this:

]

enjoy

Andy

 

[StingrayKid]

Wow. I love your natural setup you have there. Its kind of what I'm trying to acheive in my tank. I really wish Snakeheads were legal to own over here in the U.S. Great fish!

 

[blitztidus]

Very natural set up, they look right at home. cool

 

[Synirr]

The bichir looks like he has a big cheesy grin on his face
Love the setup, and the snakeheads

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Lovely fish, great looking tank .

 

[timmystood]

I love that second picture! - Looks like he's smiling!

 

[helsekia]

great tank very natural.beautiful,.the fish are great too

why are snakeheads not legal in the us?forgive my ignorance

 

[andywg]

The main reason is (I believe) the north snakehead (though I could be wrong on the species) which can survive fairly cold weather and can survive out of water for a number of days.

The voracious appetite and swift growth rate of the fish makes it a danger to the wildlife. On top of this it is not that easy to identify snakeheads at the fry stage and even the dwarf snakheads can grow and breed quickly and could take out the food supply of larger fish and still upset ecosystems. Hence the ban on all snakeheads (I believe it applies to all of the Chana and Parachana genis (is this the plural of genus?)).

Due to that far cooler winters, this is not such a problem here in the UK.

 

[Nina]

Hmm...

Them fish look very familiar

I like the pic of the Bichir best. Especially since it took me about 100 pictures of him before I got a nice one

 

[helsekia]

wow thanks for the info.how big do snakeheads get then?are we talking huge?
ive never seen a snakehead in the 'flesh' so to speak.I have some reedfish and they are great escape artists (see my ooops thread)and know they can survive several hours out of water and one has done.nice tank youve got

 

[Nina]

Some get very big.

I'm not sure which species this is but this is a Big Snakehead

And here is a Snakehead Mouth

I'm sure that there are better pics and info on them but off hand I am unsure.

 

[FishOwner]

The problem in the US is due to a man who bought a snakehead because he was going to make soup for his wife who was ill. Many asian people use this fish to make a soup that is supposed to have healing properties. Anyway, his wife got better before he could make the soup. So he released the fish into a local lake. Where the fish grew and grew and grew! Officals (being the bright shining stars that they are) decided that the only way to rid the pond of this fish was to poison the whole pond - which they did and everything within that pond died. Of course, if they had bothered to learn, the snakehead could not have survived a Maine winter (this is where this happened), and they might have been able to either fish it out or trap it out if only someone with a couple of wits intact had thought of that angle.

I don't have a problem with the banning just the way they dealt with the situation!

BTW....love your pics and fish

 

[karen84]

very nice fish

 

[danny101]

your tank is awesome, never seen it before..lovely fish too.

 

[helsekia]

wow Ive just looked at those pictures on the link,omg!they are huge.

will yours get that big?from that small little cutie?you need one hell of a tank to house that