Help on snakehead
 

Hi,
i recently bought a channa sp. fire and ice. Everything seems ok at first but after a few hours this are the problem im facing:

1. The snakehead has been jumping and banging his lips and head on the roof, which leads to scale coming off and blue black on the head and lips, is this normal? any way to help it less jumpy?

2. I read up that they need cooler water, but my tank temp has always been around 31 Degrees. will this be a problem? shd i get a fan or must i really buy a chiller?

Please help as im new on channa..

Tank cycled? Any other tank mates? A FTS of the tank will also show how at home the fire & ice would be.

Your second point is definitely a contributing factor to the first point. 31 degrees C sounds way too high for a subtropical snakehead. Running a cooling fan or the ideal solution of a chiller will surely make it more conducive for your fish. Happy Channa rearing :)

yup cycled. Tank has been setup for more than 2 months already. I have 4 butterfly fish thats all.. Sorry i cant take pics as of now as i got no cam... Need to lend my GF one but will take some time.

WA, alright.. But will the fan really help decrease the temperature enough to rear the channa? as i read up that fan only decrease 1-2 Degree which in my case is not enough right? or u think its ok?

And how long can they take it before i get the fan as i need save money for one..
Thanks alot!

As mentioned, the ideal solution would be running a chiller for your fire & ice, I think the fish will be really comfortable at 25 degrees celcius. However, that would really need some deep pockets as channas are usually kept in species only and often solitary tanks. I personally have 4 tanks for subtropical channas, no chiller due to running cost issue and also have to rule out using a central chiller to cool all 4 tanks as diseases will be transmitted all around.

It's better to get the fan as fast as possible and it can be bought very affordably at ~$10. Btw, the African butterfly fish is tropical so I would suggest removing them if you do run a chiller in the future :)

Probably something to do with water temperature, nitrite/nitrate/ammonia levels. They do need lower temperatures as if i'm not mistaken, they're a sub-tropical species. 31 degrees is way too high. They need at least 25-27.