My cobra snakehead has stopped eating

[Chrislisk]

Hi Everyone

bit of advice needed please. I’vehad my female (so I’m told) cobra for about 5 months now. She has always eaten very well, mostly fed on massivore pellets 3 times a week and sometimes frozen white fish too. Never had any problems but for the last week she has not eaten a thing….,I even popped a massivore pellet in last night and it’s still there. She is in a 250 litre 4 foot tank by herself which is heavily planted. Water parameters are:

ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate around 20 ppm

I’ve not touched her water really since I set it up and was planning on a large water change as we go into the summer and leave it again until necessary. I’ve never really messed around with her tank as I know they like it like that.

mage doesn’t really move from one spot now which is just sat on top of the filter which is set to very low flow.

what can I do to get her to feed or does anyone think somethings wrong? No visible signs of damage or anything and she is around 30cm (12 inches).

thanks

 

[Deadeye]

Don’t snakeheads have a brumation/hibernation period? Or am I mistaking that for something else or at least a different species?

Also, I’d recommend more water changes. 20 is as high is nitrates should be getting, and is an indicator of other chemicals also building up.

 

[BobsBitchyBottom]

Hi Everyone

bit of advice needed please. I’vehad my female (so I’m told) cobra for about 5 months now. She has always eaten very well, mostly fed on massivore pellets 3 times a week and sometimes frozen white fish too. Never had any problems but for the last week she has not eaten a thing….,I even popped a massivore pellet in last night and it’s still there. She is in a 250 litre 4 foot tank by herself which is heavily planted. Water parameters are:

ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate around 20 ppm

I’ve not touched her water really since I set it up and was planning on a large water change as we go into the summer and leave it again until necessary. I’ve never really messed around with her tank as I know they like it like that.

mage doesn’t really move from one spot now which is just sat on top of the filter which is set to very low flow.

what can I do to get her to feed or does anyone think somethings wrong? No visible signs of damage or anything and she is around 30cm (12 inches).

thanks

First of all, easier said than done but: keep your head cool?
Change the water. Her being on top of the filter indicates she needs more oxygen/less nitrates in the water.
After that only, try with live food to "wake her up" such as crickets or other smaller prey sold at öet stores.
She's a big girl who is going to get bigger. I have my fire & ice in 240 liter and he is about half the size as yours. Please get her a bigger home when you are able to.
Best of luck, Channas are the best!
??

 

[Chrislisk]

Ok thanks for the advise. She has just eaten a frozen Lance fish which I’m really pleased with. I will do a water change tomorrow, tbh I didn’t do one as I was under the impression what we changed for these fish is pretty much an annual affair until nitrates build way way way higher, But that said I will do one tomorrow. As for her tank…..sadly I won’t be able to get her a bigger tank, I do have a 500 5ft tank but that homes my Oscar and severums. If the tank is too small
For her to be happy in for the foreseeable then I would have to consider rehoming her which would be a sad situation.

 

[Chrislisk]

On another matter my missus and I are Chris and Yanna and for years my mates called us Channa. So I had to have her! She’s our fish ?

 

[Ca5566]

Don't want to come off rude, but a comment by another user above makes no sense. Snakeheads do not need oxygen in the water. They breathe atmospheric air only. So when it floats near the surface it does not mean the water is not oxygenated. Instead observe for signs of stress or sickness, such as clamped tails and fins or pale colouration.

First thing i'd suggest is check your water temperature. Aurantimaculata are sub tropical and they require cool temperature and seasonal drops in temperatures. If kept in warm water for long period, they get bacteria infection which starts with fin rot/white spots and which becomes really hard to cure.

Snakeheads hate large water changes, they love aged water. Indonesian breeders do long periods without water changes(think 3 to 6 months) They are sure to know alot more than we do since they do it for a living and we are doing it for hobby. But anyway I do a 20% water change for my aurantimaculata once a month. And top up twice a week for evaporation because its tank is using cooling fan right now. Will be upgrading his tank cooling with a jbj arctica chiller next week.

And for tank size i assume its 4 feet by 1.5 feet by 1.5 feet yes? Its not huge, but its enough for a single aurantimaculata. I have seen them in smaller tanks and the fish is still in great condition. Because Aurantimaculatas gets less active when they get bigger. Not to be rude, but the guy with 240 liter for a fire n ice, thats overkill. Snakeheads are not regular aquarium fishes. They usually live in small pools of water and migrate when it dries up so they are fine as long as the tank size is adequate and reasonable for their size. No need for overkill as they will not utilize the space much like other fishes.

 

[Chrislisk]

Everything you have said is inline with how I keep her. I’ve really tried hard to keep her as she would like. She is kept outside in my garage with a heater set to 16 degrees (60-61f) and let the season raise the water temp to give her a summer period, right now her water is about 20 and over xmas it was down around 15 at times.

Her tank is an aqua vogue 250so it’s 120 long x 45cm deep and 50cm high which I understand is ok for a single Auranti.

Knowing they love old water I’ve not changed it for about 3-4 months now as the parameters have been perfect. I tested last week when she hasn’t eaten and the nitrates were at the highest they have been but still only around 20 maybe even less, the tank is heavily planted.

I was going to do a 30% water change anyway on the lead into summer and then not do another till end of year and just top up depending if it needed it.

Since my initial post she has eaten one Lance fish. She is not very mobile but then she really isn’t mobile much unless eating, she just seems less mobile than normal and not eating as much as normal.
She was feeding on between 4-8 massivore pellets then nothing for about 3-4 days but now she has had like one Lance fish in the last 7-10 days.

Her fins are not clamped she just sits perched in my hanging plants or on top of the internal filter which is always her favourite place.

here’s a photo of her tank.

Any advice from someone who is very aware of these fish or has one is much appreciated.

 

[Ca5566]

Everything you have said is inline with how I keep her. I’ve really tried hard to keep her as she would like. She is kept outside in my garage with a heater set to 16 degrees (60-61f) and let the season raise the water temp to give her a summer period, right now her water is about 20 and over xmas it was down around 15 at times.

Her tank is an aqua vogue 250so it’s 120 long x 45cm deep and 50cm high which I understand is ok for a single Auranti.

Knowing they love old water I’ve not changed it for about 3-4 months now as the parameters have been perfect. I tested last week when she hasn’t eaten and the nitrates were at the highest they have been but still only around 20 maybe even less, the tank is heavily planted.

I was going to do a 30% water change anyway on the lead into summer and then not do another till end of year and just top up depending if it needed it.

Since my initial post she has eaten one Lance fish. She is not very mobile but then she really isn’t mobile much unless eating, she just seems less mobile than normal and not eating as much as normal.
She was feeding on between 4-8 massivore pellets then nothing for about 3-4 days but now she has had like one Lance fish in the last 7-10 days.

Her fins are not clamped she just sits perched in my hanging plants or on top of the internal filter which is always her favourite place.

here’s a photo of her tank.

Any advice from someone who is very aware of these fish or has one is much appreciated.

View attachment 1496165

She looks really healthy to me, color is great, fins are on full display, colors are bright good and most importantly she has a good body size. Not too skinny and not too fat. Really well cared for sure. She shows no signs of sickness at all from what i see. Its possible she's just on a hunger strike. Certain monster fishes would do that from time to time.

Sometime it could be they got tired of eating the same food, that happened with my arowanas, or they tasted something they like better. So if its possible try offering other kind of food such as african nightcrawlers, thawed tilapia fillet strips and such. I would avoid live feeding feeder fishes such as mollies or guppys and such if you never fed live food before. Even in my case, singapore where everyone says the live feeders are clean and i do not trust it one bit. The furthest i would go is feeding live ghost shrimps to my fish once in awhile as different species there's sort of lower chances of passing sickness.

Sub adult to adult snakeheads do not need daily feeding too. Some people feed theirs twice a week, some feed it every 2 days. So if you were feeding it daily it could be why its not eating due to being less mobile when they get older and metabolism slows down a fair bit, as long as she is not sick or be seen visually to be losing weight she should be alright ? snakeheads can go quite sometime without eating not an issue for them

And yes her tank size is great for a single auranti. Ignore people telling you that you need a bigger tank. Medium large snakeheads are really mellow and chill when they reach adult stage they don't move much except to eat or just swim around a little

 

[Ca5566]

Snakeheads are very expressive during sickness, you will see clamped tails and fins and just floating at the surface or tank floor with fins tucked on its body like a twig, and constantly trying to hide out of sight to the best it can and poor colouration on their body because they have the ability to change their camouflage to a certain extent. And from your picture i do not see any signs of unwell

 

[Ca5566]

For your reference this is how a sick/uncomfortable snakehead would behave, pectoral fins tucked, tail clamped and top and bottom fins closed. Floating twig mode

Context, This was the first auranti i bought from a local seller and i noticed it was behaving funny and started treatment with alot of medicine but the disease just kept progressing and passed on 2 days later due to white spots and fin rot at the same time.

Not really a pro at this but just sharing what i learnt and researched online when i tried to save my first auranti from the wasting disease and free time read ups cause my first fish was a marulioides so i researched alot about them ?