Ceylon snakehead

Scientific name: Channa orientalis

Pronunciation: Cha-nah orr-ee-en-tah-liss

Size: Usually to around 16cm, can reach 30cm

Origin: Endemic to Sri Lanka

Habitat: Forest rivers of mud and heavy vegetation

Tank size: 90x30x30cm

Water requirements: Soft and acidic to slightly alkaline water; 6.0-7.8pH, 2-20°H

Temperature: 23-26°C

Temperament: Can be kept as part of a well-considered community with fish too large to eat, but best kept as a pair

Feeding: Small meaty chunks; earthworm, bloodworm, lancefish, prawns, mussels and river shrimp

Availability and cost: Increasingly common dwarf species, prices from around £35

A truly tropical species, this fish benefits from being kept at a pretty constant 24-25°C, though it can reportedly tolerate a temperature up to 36.5°C.

The biggest mistake with maintaining (and especially breeding) the Ceylon snakehead is keeping it in tanks that are too clean. It has evolved to live in liquid filth: stagnant, next to no oxygen, turbid and stinky water. Although you don’t want to go quite to that extreme for home keeping, you want to keep waterchanges infrequent and minimal.

In fact, go a step further. If you’re keeping them on their own, you don’t really want a filter running in the tank either. Just fill it out with heaps of

Java fern, keep only a pair of Ceylon snakeheads, and sit back and wait for them to spawn. Breeders even use garden soil as a substrate in their tanks. Hard as nails.