Striped snakehead

Scientific name: Channa striata

Pronunciation: Cha-nah stree-ah-ta

Size: Usually to 60cm, can reach 100cm

Origin: Widespread across Asia

Habitat: Typically swamps and lowland rivers, in still or stagnant water

Tank size: 4x1.2x1m

Water requirements: Neutral to alkaline water; 7.0-8.0pH, hardness 4-20°H

Temperature: 23-27°C

Temperament: Aggressive, best kept alone or with other giant fish

Feeding: Offer large meaty foods; whole fish, occasional prawns, silkworm pupae, earthworms, waxworms, crickets, locusts. Insects may require gut loading first with vegetable or cereal

Availability and cost: Very rarely seen on sale for aquaria, prices subject to availability

Another giant on the verge of being untankable. Across its range it’s mostly important in human consumption, possibly being the main food fish in Thailand. And it’s another bulletproof species — as long as it remains wet, it tends to stay alive, be that in swamps or drying-out rivers. Like its large relatives, it’s voracious and it preys on anything from fish to snakes.

In the aquarium, it will even turn on gigantic tankmates when breeding. And given that when it spawns it will produce up to 1000 fry, this is probably something you don’t want to encourage at home.

While it primarily eats smaller fish, it’s not impartial to taking a chunk out of a larger victim too, and it’s notorious for turning on any new additions to its tank, regardless how big they are. It appreciates large areas of open water for roaming, spending more time higher in the water column than other snakehead species.

Research suggests that Channa striata is actually a species complex, comprising many similar looking and geographically overlapping species.