How are snakehead fish raised?

Snakehead fish is a very interesting object of aquaculture, it is popular on the world market, snakehead fish is actively grown in Southeast Asia in aquaculture, but even in our conditions, snakehead fish can occupy its niche and expand the range of fish that can be grown in ponds. In this article we will look at how snakeheads are grown, where snakehead fish live and what are its features.

Content

• What does a snakehead fish look like?
• How to distinguish snakehead and burbot
• Where are snakeheads found?
• Snakehead fish in Russia
• Snakehead fish in Uzbekistan
• Features of snakehead fish
• Snakehead feeding
• Snakehead growth rate
• Snakehead reproduction
• How does a snakehead spawn?
• Snakehead lifestyle
• Where are snakeheads grown?
• Water quality for growing snakehead

 

What does a snakehead fish look like?

 

Snakehead fish has many names; it is also snakehead, snakehead, snakehead, snakehead, snakehead, as the name suggests, snakehead fish has a characteristic appearance.

What does a snakehead fish look like? The snakehead has a serpentine body, which gives it its name. The coloration of the snakehead is overgrown. The back of the snakehead is greenish-dark or bronze-black, the sides of the fish are light gray-green, the belly is white with a bluish tint, and may have small dark spots. On the sides there are large diamond-shaped spots in two rows. The mouth is large, terminal, lips with small bristle-like teeth, jaws with sharp fangs. On the sides of the head from the eye to the end of the gill cover there are two dark stripes. Dorsal, caudal and anal fins with irregular rows of small dark spots.

In its natural range, the Amur snakehead can reach a length of 80-85 cm and a weight of 7 kg. Snakeheads in the Aral Sea river basins range in length from 20.8 to 67.1 cm, depending on age, and the maximum weight of a snakehead in Uzbekistan reaches 6 kg.

An adult snakehead is a typically predatory fish leading a sedentary lifestyle. The snakehead hunts, as a rule, in the morning and evening, attacking the prey, like a pike from an ambush, it makes a sharp zigzag movement of its body forward. Having had their fill, large snakeheads prefer to lie motionless on the bottom.

Is it possible to eat snakehead? Snakehead fish have very tasty meat and are therefore highly valued on the world market, so you can eat snakehead.

How to distinguish snakehead and burbot

How to distinguish a snakehead from a burbot? In outline, the snakehead is similar to the burbot, but differs from it in the absence of a antennae on the lower lip and fangs, a flattened head, and the presence of one dorsal fin.

Where are snakeheads found?

Snakehead fish belongs to the Indo-South African ichthyofauna. It is widespread in China and Korea, where snakehead fish are farmed in large quantities. It is cultivated in India, Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries in South Asia and Africa. In addition to its natural range, the snakehead has been acclimatized in many regions.

Snakehead fish in Russia

Where does the snakehead live? Snakehead fish - Latin name Ophiocephalus (Channa) argus warpachowskii natural habitat within Russia is located in the Amur River basin and lakes of the Far East. Snakeheads were grown in ponds in the Moscow region and Krasnodar region.

Snakeheads were grown in ponds in the Moscow region, Ukraine and Krasnodar region.

Snakehead fish in Uzbekistan

In the mid-20th century, it was brought to the ponds of the Tashkent region, from where it was distributed to the reservoirs of Central Asia, where it acclimatized in the early 60s. The snakehead lives on the territory of Karakalpakstan in many inland waters. In the new conditions, the snakehead was freed from the pressure of predators, began to actively reproduce and became a commercial species. At the same time, he himself significantly changed the local ichthyofauna, reducing the number and range of local weed fish (). Snakehead is one of the 6 commercial species of the Aydar-Arnasay lake system. The average annual volume of snakehead fishing in Uzbekistan is about 4 thousand quintals in the Amu Darya, where in the lower reaches of the river snakeheads are found everywhere, including reservoirs, lakes, irrigation and discharge canals, as well as collectors. The volume of snakehead catches in Karakalpakstan ranged from 335 to 1050 c per year. In recent years, due to large catches, its stocks have decreased.

Snakehead in Uzbekistan is considered promising for fisheries.

 

 

 

 

Features of snakehead fish

The fish farmer should take into account a number of features of the snakehead.

The body is covered with abundant mucus, which makes the work of the fish farmer difficult.
Snakehead fish are adapted to air breathing, as they have an epibranchial organ; In its natural habitat, the snakehead rises to the surface of the reservoir at certain intervals and swallows atmospheric air with a characteristic chomping sound. Therefore, the cage with snakehead fish should not be completely submerged in water, otherwise the fish will suffocate.
Snakehead fish, when stored in a humid atmosphere at an air temperature in the range of 10-15 ° C, can remain alive for 3-4 days.
The snakehead fish has one peculiarity: it can move on land; to do this, the fish wriggles and crawls towards the nearest one. odoema, in Central Asia can cover considerable distances.
Snakehead fish can survive at very high temperatures up to 40°C and can overwinter in ponds in the Moscow region when the water temperature drops to 0.2-0.4°C. This feature allows the snakehead to live in a wide range of different natural zones from the tropics to temperate climates.

Snakehead feeding

What does a snakehead eat? The snakehead is not picky about food, but simply speaking, it is omnivorous. In the Amu Darya delta, at an early stage, juveniles prefer to feed on crustaceans and small forms of chironomid larvae. In juvenile snakeheads up to 50 mm long, the diet is dominated by zooplankton and benthic organisms (dragonfly larvae, mayflies, water beetles, and often cyclops). Fish up to 20 cm in size consume insects and their larvae, and algae are also found in the stomach, but in the Aral Sea delta, juvenile snakeheads over 40 mm in length have fish in their diet. Larger snakeheads are exclusively predators. They consume not only fish - minnows, quickies, spined lances, crucian carp, roach, carp, bream, perch, etc. - but also tadpoles, frogs, and chicks of wild ducks. When grown in ponds, snakeheads reach a size of more than 1 m and a weight of 10-12 kg.

Snakehead growth rate

 

Table Linear growth of snakehead

Water	Length by age group, cm
	1+	2+	3+	4+	5+	6+	7+
Amur	22,5	36,6	46,1	55,4	61,5	67,6	-
Arnasi Lakes	22,9	34,0	43,7	51,1	59,1	-	-
Kara-Uzyak lakes	20,0	31,9	42,1	49,1	56,1	-	-
Aksai-Kuvandarya lakes	19,5	32,2	42,7	50,9	-	-	-
Kamyshlybash lakes	19,6	32,6	42,5	52,4	59,2	-	-
Amudarya*	20,4/ 0,13	35,5/0,46	48,4/0,97	52,3/1,73	60,3/2,65	67,5/3,68	71,3/4,62
Chimkurgan reservoir (1974)*	-	26,4/ 0,29	32,5/ 0,52	41,2/ 1,00	50,1/ 2,05	57,5/ 2,78	64,7/ 4,45
-"- (1978)	20,7	31,3	37,5	49,1	55,9	62,2	-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Height in cm/kg
In the 2nd year, the weight of the snakehead reaches -460 grams in Central Asia (with a length of 35 cm), in the Amur - 500 grams.

Snakehead reproduction

Sexual dimorphism in snakeheads is weakly expressed, males are only slightly larger than females of the same age in populations, the sex ratio is equal. Harvesting of spawners can be carried out in the Amur and its tributaries, in Lake Khanka, the Songhua River, in reservoirs of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (Syr Darya, Amudarya, Chimkurgan reservoir, Arnasi, Kara-Uzyak, Aksai-Kuvandarya lakes).
Puberty of the snakehead occurs at the age of 2+. The fertility of snakeheads ranges from 24 to 70, and on average is 50 thousand eggs; Pelagic caviar, egg diameter 1.8 mm. The fertility of snakeheads depends on the age, length and average weight of females.

Table: Snakehead fertility (thousands of eggs) depending on age

 

Index	Age, years
	1+	2+	3+	4+
Length	43	48	53	58
Weight	1,0	1,5	2,0	2,5
Fertility	24,0	40,0	45,0	60,0

In various reservoirs, the average fecundity of snakeheads ranges from 76.5 to 41.1 thousand eggs, which for the most part correlates with the size of the fish.

 

Table Fecundity of snakeheads from various reservoirs

 

Water	Length, cm	Weight, g	Absolute fertility thousand pieces,	Relative fertility, thousand pieces/kg
Amur	50,3	1855	41,1	22,1
Chimkurgan Reservoir	54,2	2285	76,5	33,9
Arnasiyskie lakes	54,2	2260	57,5	32,6
Kara-Uzyak lakes.	49,7	1420	43,8	30,8
Aksai-Kuvandar-	46,6	1320	56,8	43

The snakehead entered the natural reservoirs and watercourses of the Syrdarya basin. The average weight of males and females here is 1.75-1.39 kg. The fertility of female snakeheads weighing 1.15-1.44 kg is 25-41 thousand eggs.

How does a snakehead spawn?

Snakeheads spawn in ponds that are intensively overgrown with aquatic vegetation when the water warms up to a temperature of 18-23°C. Snakeheads spawn at a depth of about 1 meter.
Snakehead fish build nests. The snakehead eggs are practically non-sticky, so they float almost sparsely at the very surface, in the form of small pieces. The clutch of snakehead eggs is protected by the female and the male. Thanks to the fat drop, which occupies 3/4 of the diameter of the egg, the snakehead eggs float at the surface of the water among the vegetation.

The snakehead spawns at the age of three, spawning occurs in June-July, from 1 to 5 times per summer, while the female snakehead lays up to 50 thousand floating eggs.

Snakehead lifestyle

The development of snakehead embryos occurs at a water temperature of 23-25°C and lasts 2 days. The hatched prelarvae stay in schools near the surface of the water. Complete resorption of the fat drop occurs after 14 days, when the larva reaches a length of 10.8 mm. After a month, the fry grows to 20 mm. Since snakehead spawning can occur up to 5 times a year, juvenile snakeheads vary in size. The average weight of underyearling snakeheads can be 30-70 grams, the weight of two-year-old snakeheads reaches 200-500 grams. However, portioned spawning is an acquired feature, since in the Arnasi lakes the snakehead spawns at one time.

Where are snakeheads grown?

In the Philippines, snakehead is grown in polyculture with chanos and tilapia nilotica. At the same time, the fish productivity of the ponds was 890, and in India in a polyculture with peaceful fish it was 895 kg/ha. In Indonesia, snakeheads are raised together with tilapia to limit their reproduction. In Vietnam, snakehead occupies one of the leading places in aquaculture.

When growing snakeheads in ponds in our country, they focus on obtaining 1-2 c/ha in intensively overgrown reservoirs with poor gas conditions (where the lack of oxygen prevents the breeding of other valuable predator fish). In addition, snakehead fish may be a promising object for growing in warm-water fish farming.

Water quality for growing snakehead

What water quality should be in a pond for growing snakeheads? Snakehead fish is a typical freshwater fish that is grown in water salinities of up to 4-6 g/l. The snakehead is thermophilic, despite withstanding low temperatures, its active growth requires warming the water to 25-30 °C, this means that the snakehead should be bred in the southern regions, where it will grow quickly. An important quality when breeding a snakehead is that it feels great both in reservoirs, lakes, rivers, canals, and in lakes and ponds overgrown with aquatic vegetation with a lack of oxygen - the snakehead is able to live in reservoirs where only tench, goldfish, and tilapia survive , and among low-value fish - rotan, loach, bobyrets.

Thus, the niche for growing snakehead in aquaculture is its introduction into reservoirs and other bodies of water where there is a lot of low-value fish, as a biological ameliorator, along with pike, pike perch, and catfish. And also its introduction into oxygen-deficient water bodies where small crucian carp or tilapia live, to limit their numbers and obtain greater fish production from the reservoir.