SETTING UP ESSENTIALS

If you want to try your own hand at keeping pikeheads (correctly), you’ll want to assemble much of the following…

AQUARIUM:

Aim for something of at least 100cm long for a pair of adults. Width is preferable to depth, so 30cm deep will suffice for these shallow water dwellers.

FILTRATION:

Avoid anything with a powerful outflow. A large, air driven sponge filter in the corner of the tank would be ideal. Large external canisters will create too much water movement for pikeheads.

BOTANICALS:

For the tannin-rich blackwater pikeheads love, you will want a good supply of botanicals. Indian almond leaf (Catappa) is a good choice, though any of the heavy-staining leaves like oak will also work. In absence of a supply of botanicals (or if you don’t like the look), ensure you can source some blackwater extracts.

RO:

Pikehead water supply needs to be incredibly low in minerals, and the best way to recreate this is with the use of reverse osmosis water. While an RO unit can be an expensive purchase (and often expensive to run), RO water is now readily available in a range of aquatic stores. Alternatively, rain water can be used as long as it’s collected in an area with little air pollution.

FOOD:

In the event that your pikehead refuses to take frozen foods (accepting dry foods is almost unheard of) you’ll want a range of live foods including earthworms, crickets, feeder cockroaches and river shrimp. What a pikehead does and doesn’t accept is down to the individual fish.

LIGHTING:

This is for your benefit rather than the fish’s. Opt for something controllable that can be dimmed down. If you’re unable to source a dim light then you’ll need large numbers of floating plants to generate shade.