GIANT SNAKEHEAD Care - How to Raise an Aggressive Fish

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some people keep fish for their beauty. Some people keep fish for the relaxation the hobby brings. Then there are those that keep fish so they can see them eat other fish. Those would be who own predatory fish, such as the Piranha, the Cichlid and most importantly (at least for this article), the Giant Snakehead.

I have in the past been an owner of several varieties of the above-mentioned breeds and can say that the most aggressive was the Giant Snakehead. On top of being strong, hardy and highly aggressive, the Giant Snakehead fish is an eating machine. If you do not believe this, then the (unjust) nationwide ban across the USA done for fear of the Giant Snakeheads potential environmental damage should be enough. With that said it is important to remember that even a naturally aggressive still need some intervention by their owners to bring out their true potential.

We are going to look at the approach I have used in the past to raise the aggression levels in my Giant Snakehead from its youth to adulthood. The basic idea behind my approach is live food as early on in life as possible, with live food as the Giant Snakeheads primary food source. There have been many arguments against the use of live feeder fish due to health concerns, but I can honestly say that it is all my Giant Snakeheads have ever eaten and I each have lived very long happy lives.

In their infancy stages, I do not recommend live feed as the Giant Snakehead will not be fast enough, nor big enough to catch and eat his prey. Bloodworms and bits of Nightcrawlers are both solid choices until your Giant Snakehead reaches about 4 to 6 inches long. Follow that I would slowly introduce him to live feed. Give him a single feeder fish at a time and watch to see if he begins actively hunting it. If he does not eat it, remove it from the tank and try again later. If he does eat his first I would suggest one live fish a day for a week, while he learns to become a more effective hunter.

After the first week, you can begin to give your Giant Snakehead two to three live fish a day for the next several weeks, while slowly weaning him off his non-living feed. As he gets larger you will want to increase his feedings. Once every two weeks, I would gorge him in a large amount of live feeder fish, giving him three to four times his usual daily allowance. Doing this will not only help his growth but also increase his aggression as your Snakehead will go into something of a feeding frenzy.

If all goes well in two years time your Giant Snakehead should be reaching nearly two feet in length and you can begin considering feeding him live rodents and frogs on the extremely rare occasion. I say this because in my research I have found it can make your Giant Snakehead very stressed as it will be a very foreign food object entering his tank. On the several occasions that I fed him rodents, he becomes violent and erratic in his tank.

On a final note, you should exercise caution when taking this approach at raising your Giant Snakehead. In his later years, the Giant Snakehead will get very large, very strong and lightning fast. An adult Giant Snakehead could easily leave with you a very nasty bite and could possibly remove meat.

By Brad Betts - Article Source: EzineArticles

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GIANT SNAKEHEAD Care - Basic Safety Tips When Cleaning Your Giant Snakehead's Tank

Giant snakehead (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Generally cleaning a fish tank is very mundane and safe work, until you throw a highly aggressive fish into the mix such as the Giant Snakehead. Cleaning your tank with this monster fish in it adds a not-so-standard twist to your regular tank maintenance.

Odds are you're going to be getting your Giant Snakehead as a baby, which gives you the opportunity to introduce a very useful tank mate. The Plecostomus is a bottom-feeding fish that not only makes an interesting addition to your tank but helps keep it free of algae and other waste. If you can I recommend getting a young-adult to adult Plecostomus over the baby, as your Giant Snakehead grows much faster then he will which could turn him into lunch. If introduced at an early age, or even better before you purchase your Giant Snakehead, the odds are they will stay tank mates for years to come. Try introducing a Plecostomous after your Giant Snakehead is an adult and just watch how fast you flushed thirty dollars down the toilet.

As a youth keeping the Giant Snakeheads tank clean is not an overly difficult task. I would recommend changing 10-25% of the water, based on the size of the tank, about once every 10 to 14 days. Small to medium tanks should have about 25% of their water changed, whereas a much larger tank (100 gallons+) should get about 10% of the water replaced. Obviously, proper filtration equipment is needed to help maintain a clean tank. On the upside, the Giant Snakehead is a very stoic fish able to survive most normal PH and Alkalinity levels so maintaining proper chemicals is not critical. The downside is as he begins to get larger and more aggressive you need to start using a great deal of caution when cleaning the tank.

First off get some very long handled brushes for scrubbing the sides clean. It is best practice to never reach your hand into the tank of an adult Giant Snakehead as they generally strike anything new that enters the water immediately. Following that, I always used an electric underwater gravel vacuum from your pet store. This is a very efficient and safe method for both removing water from your tank and cleaning the gravel at the same time. It also has the added benefit of never having to reach into the tank with a bucket to remove water during the bi-weekly changes. Finally, you may want to make sure he was recently fed to keep him a bit more lethargic.

Just remember to exercise extreme caution when cleaning your Giant Snakeheads tank as they are a dangerous fish. It has been said that full grown Giant Snakeheads have killed adult human beings in the wild, and though. The last thing you want to do is cause him unneeded stress and causing yourself some serious bodily harm.

By Brad Betts - Article Source: EzineArticles

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