Pla Chon (Snakehead) In Captivity

[patongphil]

I catch quite a few of these on my excursions around the area we live. Missus and family love to eat them but sometimes they dont feel like eating them for whatever reason. We then normally leave them in a plastic bowl with a few inches of water where they live/ survive for a few days until the hunger returns.

I was wondering if I could build some form of larger tank out of cement in which I could keep the fish and then just scoop them out as and when required. Would obviously have to feed them too , maybe get bigger too as wild fish tend to be pretty small on average.

Anyone done this sort of thing before - or seen it done? Any advice appreciated or I may just have to start restricting my fishing.

[Mosha]

Agressive piscivore/carnivore. Not too fussy about water, as they possess a primitive lung. A major pest in the USA, grows to over 1 m, They care for their young

[jcw]

How long do they take to grow to a foot long?

[Mosha]

I don't know, one of the few animal species that don't just kill for food. Even when young.

[patongphil]

I have access to plenty of small tilapia in my main fish pond so food supply would not be an issue in keeping them fed.

May just give it a go and see what happens but I really dont want to see them die off due to something I have overlooked re temperature, water ph etc etc

[canuckamuck]

Interesting timing on this topic. Yesterday I got rid of some pla chon that were living in a cement tank at my place. The tanks were made for frogs originally, 3x4 meters but this year we didn't do frogs and at some point in the past someone threw some pla chon in there. and left about 20 cm of water. They seem to have done fine in there, they were about 15 to 20 cm long when I scooped them out, but I have no idea what size they were when they went in. They never got fed, but the tank was left alone so it was more of a bog with algae and debris floating around. They must have eaten bugs. It got me to thinking that they are pretty easy to keep, but I would want to raise them commercially because I am sure your feed costs would outstrip your profit.

One other thought is if you aren't going to eat all you catch, you can always catch and release. I know that is sacrilege in this country, but it is actually a good way to maintain a fishery.

[Mosha]

One way to detect the big ones when fishing, is look for what looks like simmering water. That's the fry, The parents will be close by. Ignorant aquarists would buy them as fingerlings, as the are a pretty red fish. Only to find they have bought The Hulk home, when one morning they wake up to a tank full of corpses.