Snakehead

[ryan_ekubass]

i watched em on the sportsman or outdoor channel and lee and tiffany were shooting them with bows mid flight and one of the carps came out of the water adn bout killed poor tiffany off.... then on another show i seen them shooting them with shotguns like clay pigeons.... i have personally never seen one but i do know they are devastating on a habitat....

[Tim_T]

i watched em on the sportsman or outdoor channel and lee and tiffany were shooting them with bows mid flight and one of the carps came out of the water adn bout killed poor tiffany off.... then on another show i seen them shooting them with shotguns like clay pigeons.... i have personally never seen one but i do know they are devastating on a habitat....

I saw that show as well Ryan, when that fish hit Tiffany upside the head I just wanted to give her a hug and console her! You reckon Lee would frown on that?

[know1]

i watched em on the sportsman or outdoor channel and lee and tiffany were shooting them with bows mid flight and one of the carps came out of the water adn bout killed poor tiffany off.... then on another show i seen them shooting them with shotguns like clay pigeons.... i have personally never seen one but i do know they are devastating on a habitat....

I thought those were Asian Carp.

[JD7.62]

Channa species (snakehead species) are my specialty...I of course do not keep them any more but I have had well over 100 individuals representeing over a half dozen species and I use to breed them so I feel pretty comfortable stating that I know more then anyone else regarding Channa on this board. There are well over 30 described and undescribed species of snake head. Only two have set up residence in the the US. One is Channa Argus. This is a cold water fish from China and Korea. They were NOT RELEASED BY AQUARIST like my self. C. argus was never a popular aquarium fish because of its cold water requirements and its very large size. C. argus can get 40"+ in length. They are pretty aggressive but no more then a LMB. They are currently confined to the potomac water shed by falls upstream and the Cheasapeke Bay down stream. C. argus are one of the most sought after food fish and sport fish in Asia. They are very strong fighters and make superb table fare. In the four or five years they have so far cause no difference in native fish populations. Several people are turning lemons to lemonade and there are even guides who target these awesome fish exclusively. The problem with C. argus is that it is cold tolerant and could theoretically live anywhere in the US. Just this year a new population of C. argus was found in the White River in Arkansas. This population is reported to be accidental release from the fish farms that use to rear them for the food industry before the federal ban in 04. This population scares me. The White river flows into the Mississippi and we all know where they could go from there! My best bud is currently getting his masters in Fisheries Managment at Arkansas Pine Bluff and he currently is working with Arkansas DNR on this situation. With all the flooding weve experienced this fall these fish could have really spread out, but so far there isnt much to go on.

The other breeding population in the US is C maurulia, the bullseye snake head. These fish are confined to extreme south Florida as they are a tropical species. These fish also likely orginated from live fish markets as they are the longest channa sp with reported lengths of 60" and they too arent the most colorful so poor choice for aquarists like my self. South Florida is full of exotics however compared sidexside with the purposely introduced Cichla ocellerisxmonoculus (peacock bass hybrid) in S. FL, the stomach contents of the peacock bass contains significatly more native species then the snakeheads stomach contents. Again here the bullseye snake is a highly sought after, tough to catch, but excellent fighter and excellent eating fish.

Like I mentioned earlier, there are 30+ species of channa. Less then 5 are from temperate regions and could survice the winters in the majority of the US. A few are substropical and could over winter along the Gulf Coast and So Cal, the rest are tropical and could only survive in extreme S. FL. Also nearly all of the species stay less then 12-18"!! Some stay less then 6"!

Its a shame that the .gov, out of irrational fear and misinformation so so grossly exaggerated by the media, decided to ban all Channa sp in the country. So many made awesome pets and processed very little harm to the native environment. Hopefully one day they will outlaw the few sp that pose a risk and allow us to once again keep the fish that pose absolutely none at all!

After all I can legally own one of the Tor species (think grass carp on roids and eats fish) that would easily survive our winters and at 80+lbs could do some damage to our native fish but I cant out a 6" tropical snakehead!!! And yes, ALL CARP are invasive and ALL are causing MAJOR damage!

PS; I wrote this fast and didnt proofread cause Im at work, I will doctore it up a bit later.