Re: the Snakehead in Maryland

[Dgrim62 at cs_com]

Snakeheads are under the genus name Channa. Their distribution is tropical 
Asia and Africa. 

A fish reference I once owned described them as "cannibalistic,  often 
killling in excess of their needs."

They are already present in Florida waters, documented as far back as 2000.

Snakeheads are illegal in many southern states because of the warmer waters 
in the south. For example, Snakeheads are legal in Tennessee, but illegal in 
Georgia, along with Freshwater stingrays and Pirahna. The idea probably being 
that these fish cannot survive the colder winter temps in northern states. 

The most common type I have seen for sale is Channa micropeltes, or the Red 
Snakehead or Redline Snakehead.

I have kept Snakeheads (C. micropeltes) in aquariums many years ago during my 
fascination with oddball fish (pirhanas and freshwater rays included). They 
are very aggressive and cannibalistic (personal experience). They will eat 
anything they can swallow. They get large.  I have seen C. micropeltes in 
large aquaria up to 4 foot in length. Their jaws are semi circular in shape 
and they have lots of sharp, pointy teeth. They grow quickly and are soon the 
only fish in your tank. I gave the specimen I had to a pet shop when it 
reached about 10 inches. I triple bagged it and it bit right thru all three 
bags.

They have caught 99 baby Snakeheads in addition to the adults in that pond in 
Maryland. This according to my CompuServe homepage.

Not a very nice fish
Dave     


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/html
---