Advice From The Snakehead Experts Please

[karigupi]

Nelly & all other snakehead keepers, I need your help please.

My little channa ornatipinnis babies are babies no more, they have grown so much in the last couple of weeks & these last few days they have become increasingly aggressive towards one another.

Heres a piccie of a couple, I think you can see one bite mark: (you can also see the fat tummy on the one above lol)

I'm looking for a bit of advice on how you go about looking after them over the next month or two please, if one is being particularly picked on, should I rehome that one? or do you leave them all alone until a couple form & then remove the rest? What are the signs of a couple forming & what age or size does that normally happen?

I'm adding Melafix to try to aid healing, is there anything else I can do?

 

[dave_oddballs]

i think they will be opk until they get to the stage when they start forming pairs, they will fight, bite and chase each other, its in their nature, i dont think they particularly see each other as a threat until the pairing starts. they are hardy little things and will take a bit of a beating but i would just keep to the melafix and just keep an eye on them. if any of them get particularly bad then mabe remove it to a breeding net kind of thing to give it a rest and time to recover as they may get picked on even more when they are weak!
mine are all gone now, pretty sure it was the heat! but mine started really beating each other, notto critical states but all the same i know its worrying seeing your baby fish with bite marks and beaten up! just keep an eye on them and like i said just remove if you feel it really needs to be removed!

David

 

[simonas]

I had this with my Pulchra a shor twhile back. I took the decision to allow them to form the pair cos at the end of the day that was my goal when I bought 6

 

[england]

hiya, yes you should be ok for a while, they will appear with scrapes on the head etc etc, it comes from squeezing under rocks and jumping and hitting the lid etc, at this time i would still leave them to get on with it, once you start noticing any real head on aggresstion then maybe think about seperating, they will get aggressive so you will have to grit your teeth if you wan't a pair to form, but as said it is difficult to watch if your not used to agressive fishie's...
Make sure there is plenty of escape hidey holes....
Some people will have a group and grow them up in tanks seperatly or divided,so all have there own space, then once they are around 5-6inches they will bring them together in a big tank,but i feel doing it that way may in some ways work,obviously no wounds or scuff marks,but at that size they will make more of an impact once they meet, as in the wild they will really only come together at breeding time, so to have them as a pair perm is different from in the wild from what we understand....
My pair tollerate each other pretty well during the out of season time out.. bit like a human married life


ps.....they are looking very healthy indeed and i can't see any signs of major agresstion as of yet in the pics...getting to look alot like mini me's now..

 

[karigupi]

Thanks for all the replies I will be a good girl & try to leave them alone, must admit to being a bit twitchy watching them rough each other up, but tis all for the good in the end!

Is there any way to tell females from males with these?

 

[england]

no its diffucult to say the least, Males do have a bigger mouth and more chunkier than the females,but even now i still have too look hard to see who is who..hehe

how are you getting on with them?i have a post in pics section with my babies, go have a butchers

 

[karigupi]

I need a little reassurance again please

The not so little fella's are starting to really go at it, they are amazing to watch at night, but can be right nasty things. Are they still to young to be forming a pair do you think? There are 2 who never stray far away from each other, they are either perched on top of a plant or on a rock, but always together, resting on top of each other, could this be an early pairing?

The main thing I wanted advice on, all of them are showing small rips & marks, but seem fine, but one seems really stressed out, he has a big mark on his head & 2 big splits in his fins, he spends all the time hiding in one corner, if another comes close he flips up & down against the glass & starts panting, do you think I should seperate him & rehome him?

 

[premiumhawks]

i had heard of these fish but have never looked at them until now. i think they are awesome and would love to see some videos posted of them feeding. good luck with them.

 

[england]

Difficult to say, they get aggressive, i would hold of until i felt it was a danger, but problem is i cannot see daily activity to say when i feel unsafe etc, bare with it, maybe move the one you feel is very bullied, it is a good sign two seen to be hanging alot together

i had heard of these fish but have never looked at them until now. i think they are awesome and would love to see some videos posted of them feeding. good luck with them.

not a video but a photographic diary
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=272298&hl=

 

[karigupi]

Thank you, thats put my mind at rest a bit, its going to be difficult when the time comes to let them go, they are so beautiful, even when they are ripping chunks out of each other