Good read regarding the Giant Snakehead.
Feeding habits: Primarily a daytime feeder (Ng and Lim, 1990). Accounts of this species almost invariably describe it as a vicious predator on other fishes. Adult and perhaps subadult Channa micropeltes feed in packs, usually in midwaters or near the surface. Parents guard their eggs and young, and are reported to have attacked humans that approached a nest (Smith, 1945; Lee and Ng, 1991). Kottelat and others (1993) stated that anglers and swimmers who got too close to young were attacked, some seriously wounded, and that there have been fatalities. The report of fatalities was from local fisheries officials (Maurice Kottelat, personal commun., 2003).
Peter Ng (personal commun., 2002) commented that he knew of one instance where a man was nearly castrated by an attacking giant snakehead. Prey includes other fishes, frogs, and birds (Lee and Ng, 1994). Lee and Ng (1991) commented that authorities at the Singapore Botanic Gardens planned to remove C. micropeltes from ponds at that facility because this snakehead was feeding on cygnets. Ng and Lim (1990) referred to this species as the most ravenous of snakeheads, and they, Mohsin and Ambak (1983), and Roberts (1989) noted that it is known to kill more fishes than it consumes in its natural habitat.
Ng and Lim (1990) described the enlarged canine teeth of C. micropeltes as being knifelike, with two cutting edges in crosssection, the edges arranged perpendicular to the body axis. This allows shearing of prey.
Feeding habits: Primarily a daytime feeder (Ng and Lim, 1990). Accounts of this species almost invariably describe it as a vicious predator on other fishes. Adult and perhaps subadult Channa micropeltes feed in packs, usually in midwaters or near the surface. Parents guard their eggs and young, and are reported to have attacked humans that approached a nest (Smith, 1945; Lee and Ng, 1991). Kottelat and others (1993) stated that anglers and swimmers who got too close to young were attacked, some seriously wounded, and that there have been fatalities. The report of fatalities was from local fisheries officials (Maurice Kottelat, personal commun., 2003).
Peter Ng (personal commun., 2002) commented that he knew of one instance where a man was nearly castrated by an attacking giant snakehead. Prey includes other fishes, frogs, and birds (Lee and Ng, 1994). Lee and Ng (1991) commented that authorities at the Singapore Botanic Gardens planned to remove C. micropeltes from ponds at that facility because this snakehead was feeding on cygnets. Ng and Lim (1990) referred to this species as the most ravenous of snakeheads, and they, Mohsin and Ambak (1983), and Roberts (1989) noted that it is known to kill more fishes than it consumes in its natural habitat.
Ng and Lim (1990) described the enlarged canine teeth of C. micropeltes as being knifelike, with two cutting edges in crosssection, the edges arranged perpendicular to the body axis. This allows shearing of prey.
