Pigeonduck

Channa andrao are sub tropical and the whole of the UK is temperate with cold winters so there's not any risk of them being invasive. The cold water species is banned here.

About a week ago I upped the temperature in the tank back to 24C. Big Boy started to spend a lot of time in the driftwood cave and stopped eating. I could see him moving his gills more than normal so I wondered if he had eggs. Last night i was looking at him as he came to the cave mouth and a couple of tiny fry popped out. They look like plump little stubby sperm 😆 He and the female kept chasing off corydoras that wandered underneath and he lost fry as he did it so I don't have high hopes for this batch.

I find them boring too. I'd take a nice group of Pseudomugils over neons or cardinals.

Discus. They have nice colours but all the personality and interest of a washing up sponge. Fancy goldfish. They just bob about being deformed and looking for food.

As they grew they started to display to each other more. They exhibit dramatic colour changes as part of intra-species communication. This video shows 2 females and then the male dropped in. Turn off the sound if you don't want to hear parrots beeping. 😆 They grew like mad and once the two biggest ones reached full size they formed a pair and started to beat up the others so I took out the spares. This is the big female. She will jump right up out of the water for snacks. She will also boop a finger, or try to eat it! Now the pair spend a lot of time displaying. Big Boy's fins have really filled out so when he displays he looks quite impressive. I recently started to turn the temperature back up in the tank. He now is more scatty and likes to hang out in the driftwood cave. They have also started to practice mating by the look of things. They basically form a spinning ball off fish then stop and sink. Fingers crossed for baby fish in the future. Bonus pic of one of their tank mates. Corydoras multiradiatus I think that the snakeheads think that they're rocks that occasionally move 😆

They're great characters aren't they. I feel a bit guilty now that I hear so many are being exported. I wonder where they go and why more aren't captive bred because andrao are definitely not difficult to breed in captivity. Have you seen any snakehead species in the wild? I've watch some YouTube videos on them in their natural environment. It would be cool to see in reality 😊

The bigger species do get ridiculously large! When I move house I would like to get a bigger tank for one of the 20-30cm sized species.

Just over a year ago I was scrolling through fish for sale on ebay and came across something called a 'rainbow snakehead'. I had never seen a fish like it so I immediately fell down an internet research hole and discovered another even smaller species Channa andrao. They looked and sounded great so I decided that I had to have one. A quick bit of background. Channa andrao is a small snakehead species maxing out at 11cm. They come from swamps in the basin of the Brahmaputra river and so require a yearly seasonal drop in tank water temperature. It also means they are tolerant of poor water conditions and they breath air at the surface. They're predators but mostly feed on invertebrates and exhibit quite social behaviour as juveniles. Once mature they pair off and in the wild each pair will weather the cold season in a burrow together before breeding once temperatures rise. Unfortunately as soon as I was ready to get my new tiny snecks, a national shortage and Covid hit the UK and I pretty much gave up hope of getting any. Then last October I randomly did a search for them and found an online shop selling them. I ordered 4 youngsters of 6-8cm and quickly got a new tank set up. They all arrived happy and healthy. It looked like I had 2 males and 2 females. They were great fun to watch. Very social with each other, gently touching all the time and hanging out together. They were wild caught and so I fed live and frozen foods at first. Now they eat practically anything including Tetra crisps but I still feed mostly frozen foods. I think that's enough for one post so I will continue another day.

1) Hillstream loaches (any species). They are cute and silly looking. 2) Rhinogobius gobies. Unlike Stiphodon gobies they can breed in freshwater. They are very silly looking and the males dig nests under rocks by picking up gravel/sand and spitting it out. Rhinogobius duospilus

Regarding the floating plants, Salvinia auriculata might be worth considering as another option.

They're pretty. Shiny and purple is a good combo 😁

My Channa andrao snakehead pair look like they'll have a go at breeding once I take them out of the cool water season. In another tank my baby red chinned panchax are colouring up beautifully 😁 My blue dream shrimp colony are breeding like flies and my new siamese fighting fish isn't putting a dent in their numbers.

Something/s in my community tank eats the nerite eggs but I never notice them doing it. I think that the most likely candidates are the gastromyzon ctenocephalus the otocinclus and/or the leopard frog plec.

I have bettas with all of my neocaridina shrimp colonies and I think that you'll probably be fine once you've got enough cover for the shrimp. My suggestion is buy decent sized shrimp to test with the betta because they are more of a challenge and less likely to be eaten. Maybe even keep the fish in a breeding net for a few days after you add the shrimp so you can remove any that die before he gets the chance to try eating them.

My favourite fish is Bigboy my male Channa andrao but his girlfriend Fatcow comes a close second. They are the most interactive pet-like fish that I have ever owned. They eat from our hands, will jump for food and follow hands around the tank. They've also got really interesting behaviour to observe. It's fun seeing so much variety in this thread.

If it's heavily planted including dense plants like clumps of moss and you start off with decent sized adult shrimp you might be ok. I have a cherry shrimp in 3 different tanks with 3 different bettas and other fish in the larger tanks. The smallest is 20l. Each shrimp colony is thriving. You just have to run the risk that your particular beta might be a greedy pig who eats all shrimp.

Do you have a heater in the aquarium? A heater should be able to deal with changes in room temperature. For example once the heating turns off at night and the room temperature drops the heater will run more often. If you don't have a heater the simplest option is to get a heater. In case of a power cut. You can do things like put a duvet over the aquarium to help it to retain heat. If you're worried about the electricity bill you could do it every night.

Interesting to see this thread. I had never heard of them until a few days ago when I came across a pair for sale on Ebay. They arrived yesterday and the listing said that they were 4-5cm so I expected to open a box to find 2 smallish fish. Instead they are nearly full adult size, the male is at least 8cm to the start of his tail. They're amazing looking fish.

You're doing so well with them. It's an interesting read. I'm sure that it will be helpful to others in the future. Can't wait to see them once you move them to a planted tank. 😁

Thank you that's really good to know! The barbatus look like another nice option although I am not sure how easy they are to find near me.

Hi all, I'm looking for a big species of cory that can go down to temperatures of around 18-20°C for 3 months each year. Cory suggested in an article/video Corydoras multiradiatus as a tank mate for goldfish so does anyone know if they can go that low? C. splendens are another good option size/looks wise but again, I don't want to accidentally kill them with temperatures below 20. I have tried to find details of water temperatures in their natural habitat but had no luck. I already know that peppered and bronze corydoras should be ok but they're a bit small. I need them to be too large for a Channa andrao to be tempted to eat. Any help much appreciated.