Channa pleurophthalma compatibility

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StiffMeister

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 14, 2006
2,490
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Netherlands
Guys, I have a question about this species. Friends of mine bought these fish and i must say they are stunners. Im thinking of getting one too but im not sure whether his future tankmates will support my decision. I have a datnoid, some plecos, some eels, 2x 9" bichirs and soon a black arowana. The pleuro will come in at around 30cm. How will he mix with the others? Ive noticed they have big teeth and im not sure if he will use them on other fish.
Ive read they are hard to put on other food but feeders. Im not planning on putting feeders in my tank... ever... so will he be ok? will he accept mussel, shrimp etc?
What are your experiences with this fish?

i was also thinking about ordering a channa aurantimaculata but after reading they need some hibernation temperatures, thats a no-go. any suggestions on other similar species?
 
Hi, I have two Pleuros. I cleared my entire stock of fish that I'd grown from tiny so I could house my Pleuros with no worries.

What size is the tank mate? I hope it's at least 2.5ft wide as Pleuros are open water torpedos, they are always swimming around and at times very fast.

You should think about getting more than one Pleuro if you decide to get one as they shoal in the wild and hunt in packs, also mixing with an Aro and a Dat could be problematic.

If you get the fish at 30cm and it's been on live feeders all it's life changing to dry or frozen foods is going to be very difficult. Mine eat anything dead but then they have never been given feeders, well they did once but decided that goldfish taste like crap hence I now have 3 large goldfish living with the Pleuros.

I'm not too sure how aggressive Pleuros are as I said earlier I cleared my Aro, Gars, knives, bichirs to get mine and all that has shared their tank were the 6 goldfish now down to 3. But these 3 have been fine for the last 4 months.

To finish, Pleuros are the best and most charasmatic fish I have ever kept and remember it's Blue for boys and Green for girls :D

Good luck
 
thanks for the good info bro :D
The tank is 160*60*60cm. It should be big enough i guess but like you mentioned, the combo with dat and aro is the thing im worried about.
If i can get it, it will be this single fish. no chance to get a group. but im not sure i want a group. even though tehy are group animals, my tank cannot support that.
Why did you clear everything? just afraid they would kill the tankmates? My friends here keep them with tankmates, smaller fish too... should they expect the worst?
Where does the sex-difference in color appear? over the whole body??
Anybody else got exp with these fish?
 
beautiful snakehead. You know i'venever actually seen one bigger than 9/10 inches and that was at the aquazoo in dusseldorf. didn't know they got 18 inches. wanna see a pic of one that would be impressive
 
i believe it's 16''.......And i must say those are not only the nicest Snakeheads, but they are in the running for the nicest fresh water fish that exist:drool:
 
Yes, 16" is said to be the max size of Channa pleurophthalma, but I beleive it's very possible to exceed that. Here is a 17"+ speciman that ended up jumping out from the tank during the night and died.
pleurophthalma01.jpg


pleurophthalma02.jpg


pleurophthalma03.jpg


Also have heard of another speciman at 'Tokyo Tower Aquarium' in Japan, that was near the 20" range in size. What an impressive sight that must be?!! :)
 
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