General info needed for the Channa Fire&Ice dwarf

[Bongo]

Hi guys, a quick introduction and i'll start with the questions, I've had aquariums more or less since 5 years old, had cichlids, discus, seasonal and big killifish, puffers etc, and as of last week got a Channa Fire&Ice.

My questions are as follow due to conflicting info i've gotten from the dealer who imported them and forums around the web :

The temperature range my Channa would thrive the best in is ? 17-22C or 22-26C ( it was held in the latter)
What do you feed your fish ? The channa was given blood and meal worms at the dealer and eats that currently in my aquarium.
Amount of flow the fish likes ? The fish was kept in almost stagnant water at the dealers place, what amount of flow should i provide ?
Amount of lighting ? I have T5 LED lighting at around 20W per the 27GAL aquarium ... I god duckweed and floating plants to mitigate that ...
When will the little guy become less shy ?
Finally dealer/breeder said to feed lots of food, i had predators before yet not channa, i thing i should monitor worm per worm and pellet per pellet and stop when the fish stops jumping on the food within the few seconds of being offered the feed.

Your input would be more than appreciated as I've done my homework pretty well and am completely puzzled by the info provided by the dealer...

That's him :

And that's the video from his first day home:

[YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jfhrN2_sdc[/YT]

Cheers

 

[-DC-]

Congrats they are a very nice species!

Go with lower temps, you'll find conflicting information on just about all subtropical channa because water temps in the native range change throughout the year.

17-22 is the correct average but would be best to let it go down a couple degrees in the winter and up a few degrees in the summer.

They will like a dark and gloomy tank. With Little to no flow, lots of floating cover , plants and hides. The easier you make it for them to hide the bolder they will become abd won't be long until it's front and center checking for food every time you approach the tank. Kept in a bright or open concept tank will leave it nervous and timid .

I feed my subtropicals with mealworms and NLS pellets. Feed a Sparingly , channa are greedy they will over eat if given the chance and are prone to obesity .

I feed with the seasons . Regular meals in the spring and summer while temps are higher , 2-3 meals a week is plenty in summer. In fall and winter when temps drop a schedule more along the lines of 2-3 times a month at most .

Hope that helps!

 

[Joao M]

Hey Bongo!

Nice channa.
Devon said it all.. just follow his lead and you´ll be in the right track.

Good luck

 

[Bongo]

Guys, thanks for the info, I've gradually lowered her to 22C throughout the 2 days and stained the water with peat and one mangrove piece...
And surprise surprise i have a new friend :

She's still eating like a champ and i think is finally feeling at home...

 

[-DC-]

Looking good!! Don't be afraid to keep lowering those temps , they are best kept without a heater room temperature is more then enough and it will to allow for natural fluctuations . I find all sub tropicałs show better colors at the cooler temps.

 

[Bongo]

Hi Devon, thanks I'll be lowering the heater to 19C within the next few days as the nights are still a wee bit colder than i'd like to have it. It's already a bit darker and is begging for food like you've said like it's been around for ages. Definitely a lot of character for this size of fish. Definitely is making me re-think my idea of a 100g discus tank and think about a larger kind of channa, who would have thought that my next favorite fish would be a species i've only heard about recently watching a re-run of "River Monsters".

 

[-DC-]

Nothing wrong with easing then down into the 12-13c area on a steady basis I wouldn't worry, if you prefer have the heater to be safe i would recommend setting the heater to 16-17c to cap the lows well within the safe range but still should allow for a a day/night change.

 

[-DC-]

Nothing wrong with easing then down into the 12-13c area on a steady basis I wouldn't worry, if you prefer have the heater to be safe i would recommend setting the heater to 16-17c to cap the lows well within the safe range but still should allow for a a day/night change.

Oops . I deleted a chunk of that in error some how ... Should have read...

"Nothing wrong with easing them down into the lower temps and unless the room gets down around the 12-13c area on a steady basis I wouldn't worry..."

All my sub tropicals get winters down around 15 c , I've seen them all go below 12 and they were still active and eating with vibrant colors . Not saying you have to go that low , just giving the example to show that at 16-17 set on the heater is still well within the safe range for them.

 

[Joao M]

When I kept my sub-tropicals in the garage (well... a garage converted into fishroom, actually) the tank temp in the winter went down to 11-12º and they were perfectly fine. Less active and only eating once a week (twice sometimes) but with great colours and overall behaviour.
Since I moved and lost the garage (December 14), the living-room temp doesn´t drop below 17-18º +/- .
The only difference I noticed in between mid Dec and late February is they were a bit more active and "askes to be fed" 2x a week.

Temp is now around 20º and every other day they beg for food (that ´s the max I give them; don´t feed them everyday)

 

[Bongo]

Got it, a week or two to go and I'll be turning off the heater completely as night temperatures are already being steady at 17C and day at 20-22C. I just Installed a canister filter for it, the aquarium ran with 2x Aquael internal filters now I've went with Tetra Ex700 so that's about it. Can happily say that I have some level of interaction with the fish, begging for food, eating out of fingers and generally acting like something I've usually encountered with Oscar fish which is making this an even better experience than what I've set out to have in the first place.

Thanks once again to all that replied, I'll be sticking around and lurking.