Head details of young adult pencil fish from Kalasin province in northeastern Thailand
Head details
The little shield snakehead is a bit over-exaggerated in the aquarium media, and many aquarists say that it is a terrible and ferocious "monster" fish, it is known for killing all the fish in the tank, and even actively attacking humans in the wild, but there is no evidence that it has actively attacked humans.
Briefly
Small shield fish, Channa micropeltes (Cuvier, 1831 name), small shield fish, commonly known as dorman fish, fish tiger, large pencil, red line fish or red snakehead.
Wild fish collected from the Kapuas River in Kalimantan Province (Borneo), Indonesia
Etymological explanation
Channa: From the Latin word channe, it used to refer to an unspecified sea bass.
micropeltes: from the ancient Greek word μικρ (mikros), meaning 'small', and πλτη (péltē), meaning 'shield', referring to the shield-like scales on the head of a fish.
assignment
The species is widely distributed throughout much of Southeast Asia, and its range extends southwestward from the Mekong River basins of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia (including the Tonlé Sap system) and Vietnam to central and southern Thailand (peninsula), Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and the Great Suta Archipelago of Sumatra, Borneo and Java. It also appears in many smaller archipelagos, including Bangka and Belitung (Billiton).
habitat
Shows a preference for standing in slow-moving environments, such as larger, deep, lowland waterways, inland lakes and swamps, including man-made canals and reservoirs.
The Perak River Basin, Perak, is a typical habitat of Peninsular Malaysia
Native to Southeast Asia, including India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. Adults have a wide black longitudinal band on the side of the body, and when juvenile fish have two black longitudinal bands with orange in the middle. It inhabits ponds, ponds and streams, and is resistant to dirty, turbid and oxygen-deficient environments.
Maximum standard length
1000 - 1300 mm.
Fish tank recommended
Only for public facilities or huge private fish tanks, there is a crash tank behavior, adult pencil fish is not recommended for individual breeding, not suitable for family fish tanks.
Water conditions
Temperature: 20 - 30°C
pH： 6.0-8.0
Hardness: 36 - 357 ppm
diet
Predators prey on smaller fish, amphibians, invertebrates and land insects, but in most cases adapt to captive-reared death substitutes. Some specimens even accept dried foods, but these foods should never form a staple food.
Young fish can provide mosquito larvae (red worms), small earthworms, chopped shrimp, etc., while adults will accept fish strips, whole shrimp/shrimp, mussels, etc. Older adults do not need to be fed every day, 2-3 times a week is enough.
Feeding mammalian or poultry meat, such as cow hearts or chicken meat, is not recommended, as some of the lipids in these substances cannot be properly metabolized by fish and can lead to excessive fat deposition or even organ degeneration.
Additional Instructions
It belongs to the family of snakehead fish, because most species of snakehead fish have large scales on the head, which are reminiscent of the epidermal scales on the snake's head, so it is called snakehead fish, there are more than 30 species, and the number is still increasing.
Snakeheads have pairs of bronchial form auxiliary respirators behind and above the gills, which are respiratory epitheliums. These conditions allow snakehead fish to breathe the atmosphere and survive for a considerable period of time in low-oxygen conditions and even in an anhydrous environment, while in fish tanks, pencil fish are often seen rising above the surface to inhale large amounts of air.
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