Snakehead rescue

[MrHumphries]

Looks to me like these guys are causing some issues, i can see why they are being killed onsite

Don

[J-P]

any pics of the fish as of yet?

I know you were intending to do a clove oil treatment.

[~reefchik~]

I saw part of that story on NatGeo not long ago and has forgotten about it. Wow....

[RTR]

Contact your state government for info on permits in your state. I would bet it is illegal to ship across state line without multiple permits. They are illegal here in MD, and have already cost us millions of our tax dollars.

So far as I am concerned, my personal advice would be to euthanize the fish. It is a hard thing to say, but those critters have cost us all massive amounts of money, and will continue to do so indefinitely. Careless handling can easily kill this hobby- there are already efforts in progress to ban all imports or internal shipments of so-called exotics.

And very definitely NIMFT either!

[Cuchulainn]

Still would like to see a picture of it if possible!

[J-P]

Careless handling can easily kill this hobby- there are already efforts in progress to ban all imports or internal shipments of so-called exotics.

Yes, I read that petition on MFK.. they are considering a ban on many tropical fish if not all? That sounds crazy, but being here in the cold north we don't have some of those problems that the southern states have

[~reefchik~]

+1 on RTRs advice, sadly. As ridiculously mushy and pro-life as I am, in this case I think it's basically a no win.

[side19]

no pictures yet, i still have yet to see it. i'm waiting for my girlfriend's aunt to give me the woman's number but she has yet to get back to me. if she does then i will simply get some clove oil and give the woman instructions on how to properly put the fish down and then tell her to contact the authorities. how ever i want to see the fish first, as there is a possibly it may not be a snakehead at all. i'll keep you all updated as this goes on, and i'll try to get a couple pictures of it before it gets put down if it is indeed a snake head. thanks for the advice and support everyone.

[J-P]

never seen one in an aquarium before... pics pics pics

[purplecandle]

I don't think it will be a snake head, or at least I hope not..

They have been illegal for a while so how could the boyfriend have even gotten one, unless he went to Florida..

And then the boyfriend and girlfriend do not sound like lover's of fish so I doubt they would have hunted down this species through elicit means.

Let's hope that the boyfriend was just trying to sound cool, and called a fish he knew nothing about a snakehead..

But yeah if it is, euthanize...it is illegal..and I would assume that at some point being stunted would in someway be painful to the fish.. Look at it from that standpoint, it is an unhealthy specimen..

[soggydrysuit]

Pity it wasn't here in the UK - I'd rehome it in my vat.

If this is indeed a snakehead, it may be one of the dwarf species that only get to eight inches or so. That'd be my best guess if it's six inches long and still alive in a tank that small.

Pity. You may be snookered by the law's there. But they are there for a reason. All of these are out and out predators, some but not all are highly aggressive to literally anything that moves.

My lfs had an adult 'blue snakehead' brought in and the thing was, frankly, scary to me at only a couple of foot long. If I got within a couple of feet of it's tank it would flare it's jaws, shake it's head and charge me. Or try to.

I'd hate to think what an adult five foot 'red' snakehead could do, if you were swimming in a river with some but you probably wouldn't have any toes left!

There are some 'nicer' and quite pretty small varieties but some of them are plain nasty...

I've not had a large enough tank spare to keep some of the small ones in here but I understand they breed quite easily. Another reason to keep them out of rivers and lakes over there.