what to keep with bleheri

[neko1]

Hello I got a 1,20mx60x40 tank. I wanted to keep a couple of bleheri. After looking for them forever I finally got a couple. To bad the first day I couldn't find 1 anymore. So I bought a fire and ice snakehead. It got stock in the pump....... I was really stressed about it and wanted to quit with the snakeheads for some time. So I took sometime of and just left the aquarium as it is.

So its been a few weeks since the accident and I am starting to love the 1 bleheri. Its a funny guy He even lets me pet him. The plan was to search another house for him and try again with another couple but he is just so much fun that I can't do him away.
But 1 channa bleheri is a little boring. Does anyone have some idea what kind of fish would be cool to keep with him?
I was thinking about some catfishes anyone good idea's?

 

[Gaz_ham]

That's a big tank just for a single dwarf snakehead! I think you are better to get a smaller tank and keep him in that, especially if he's such a character.
I've found when they are unhappy for some reason, with their tank mates or conditions, they try to escape or hide in a cave all day.
Bleheri are subtropical, so keep that in mind if you want to add any fish. I never found nice looking fish that were not threatening to or to end up as a punching bag my bleheri, and the same temperature range. Mine beat up the group of 6 he was from and ended up alone. Just a pleco and a polyprerus senegalus in the end, keeping the temperature around 22-24°c. They got on fine for a few years until he passed away. I don't tend to keep other fish with snakeheads now, usually just a pleco to keep on top of the tank, in my experience, they don't often take well to community life.
I would fill that tank with a slightly larger species, maybe pulchra or stewartii.

 

[Achilles1763]

Odessa barbs are temperate fish (like the snakeheads) and make an amazing looking shoal for a large tank.

 

[neko1]

That's a big tank just for a single dwarf snakehead! I think you are better to get a smaller tank and keep him in that, especially if he's such a character.
I've found when they are unhappy for some reason, with their tank mates or conditions, they try to escape or hide in a cave all day.
Bleheri are subtropical, so keep that in mind if you want to add any fish. I never found nice looking fish that were not threatening to or to end up as a punching bag my bleheri, and the same temperature range. Mine beat up the group of 6 he was from and ended up alone. Just a pleco and a polyprerus senegalus in the end, keeping the temperature around 22-24°c. They got on fine for a few years until he passed away. I don't tend to keep other fish with snakeheads now, usually just a pleco to keep on top of the tank, in my experience, they don't often take well to community life.
I would fill that tank with a slightly larger species, maybe pulchra or stewartii.

I thought that pulchra or stewartii needed a 2 meter tank?
I do want to change the water temperature. I was thinking about 20 in de winter and 25 in summer. Is that alright?

And Is it possible to Make it a catfish tank or to keep 1dragonpuffer with him?

 

[neko1]

hello?

 

[Gaz_ham]

I would keep a pair of Pulchra in a tank your size, others may not, but I would.

I would keep bleheri at an average on 20°c, colder months at 18°c and warmer months at 24°c.

It's up to you what you want to put with him, I wouldn't put any large, aggressive or territorial fish in with him. Maybe some small/mid size silver fish.
I don't tend to keep other fish with channa, so I wouldn't recommend it.
If you want to try a catfish or a puffer, feel free to try. It might work, it might not. I don't know much about puffers or catfish, so I couldn't begin to advise either way.

 

[neko1]

I would keep a pair of Pulchra in a tank your size, others may not, but I would.

I would keep bleheri at an average on 20°c, colder months at 18°c and warmer months at 24°c.

It's up to you what you want to put with him, I wouldn't put any large, aggressive or territorial fish in with him. Maybe some small/mid size silver fish.
I don't tend to keep other fish with channa, so I wouldn't recommend it.
If you want to try a catfish or a puffer, feel free to try. It might work, it might not. I don't know much about puffers or catfish, so I couldn't begin to advise either way.

I was thinking about l-numbers but Im not sure if they can handle the colder water

 

[Gaz_ham]

My brother has tried keeping L number plecos. He says they need specific and stable water conditions, he keeps snakeheads, but never managed to keep the L numbers alive or happy with channa.

 

[Madou]

I was thinking about l-numbers but Im not sure if they can handle the colder water

L number can't defend themselves against any type of aggression, let alone cold blooded killers like channas. Problem doesn't even lay there. Once the chann has the size to kill your L, it'll try to eat it. When it'll realize it can't, it'll be too late, the L will be stuck and won't come out.

I thought that pulchra or stewartii needed a 2 meter tank?
I do want to change the water temperature. I was thinking about 20 in de winter and 25 in summer. Is that alright?

And Is it possible to Make it a catfish tank or to keep 1dragonpuffer with him?

Between 16 and 24°C is the norm. There are tropical channas, and those are the only ones with a chance of success in a community, though a very slim one.

Puffers are tropical, at the higher spectrum of temps too. Won't work. On top of that, it'll either eat chunks of your channa, or die overnight.
Same goes with catfishes, though this will take a longer time. it'll eventually die or eat the channa if it fits in its mouth since most are nocturnal hunters, and most channas sleep at the bottom (few exceptions to that rule, though will still eventually kill it).

Bottom line is: Channas make horrible tank mates. Kill or die. Those are not just words, they're from actual experience. With having put my hand on five Pleurophthalma last week (after seeing 4 die to fungus upon arriving), I've owned most channa except for the few bigger specimens (anything bigger than diplogramma) and the overprized Barca. I've tried a tankmate with all of them.

Only time it worked was with bleheris, in a tank that was 95% covered in vallisneria, so they rarely encountered their tank mates, and it all changed when a couple formed, anyway. Anything and everything died, except the two who made me babies I took ages to part with.

 

[Madou]

I'll add that if you want more than 2 fishes in a tank, with channas, you can either get a pack of pleuros, or buy 5 bleheris, and hope a pair never forms. That's the only way they'll live together. If you come across a very big tank, maruloides also seems to be making a decent tankmate, provided no other of his tankmates tries to even remotely mess with it.