Snakeheads

Good article in the Washington Post on the current status of snakeheads in the Potomac:

http://www.washingto...ml?hpid=artslot

Early on, you might (as I did) start to get a little ticked at the author for portraying them and the two hacks promoting them as less of a problem than they are...but keep reading, it gets better.

cheers,
Dave

well lets hope the DNR shuts those guys up before they start introducing them in to other rivers those things would eat up bowfin faster than lightning oh and anyone got a follow up on the snakehead in NC

On the above website, it says the following:

Hooked on Frankenfish
They're big, they're bad and they're ugly, but snakeheads might be the next big catch in Washington sport fishing.

Did they really mean the state of Washington? I tried to look further on that website but I didn't find anything on the subject.
Also, I looked up snakeheads on Washingtons DFW website and they are prohibited there.
I am worried because Washington is my home state, so does anyone know any more about this?

They are talking about Washington, DC, and the mighty Potomac River.

This area gets a lot of money for having the great largemouth bass in our river system.

They (DNR?) electroshock for them but have actually began tagging and releasing in order to study their habits. I don't believe any other studies have been done to see how they are impacting the LMB.

They are pretty much here to stay but no one has any idea in what capacity.

Did you see the size of those fish? From the reports I've read, they've only been in the river for the last five years or so. That means the 27 incher is probably not much older than that. I think it would probably take a largemouth bass considerably longer to reach that size. Moreover, in five years or so, they've spread over 44 miles, and their original point of introduction was believed to be Mount Vernon.

Fast growth in a short time. Phenomenal spread in an equally short time. I'm thinking that the chances for a disaster of Lake Victoria proportions are very high.

Consider this:
They grow faster than most of the other predators in the system (except maybe striped bass and blue catfish)
They guard their young to a greater stage of viability than do most of the other large predators in the system.
I don't know the size of their spawns, but I'd wager it's larger than that of most of the other large predators as well.

In another 20 years or so, I wouldn't be surprised if the snakeheads were the dominant fish in a system with only common carp, feral goldfish, and blue catfish remaining.

They are talking about Washington, DC, and the mighty Potomac River.

This area gets a lot of money for having the great largemouth bass in our river system.

They (DNR?) electroshock for them but have actually began tagging and releasing in order to study their habits. I don't believe any other studies have been done to see how they are impacting the LMB.

They are pretty much here to stay but no one has any idea in what capacity.

Those are handsome fish - I would like to see them in the Pearl River system. Anybody got any they can send my way??

Those are handsome fish - I would like to see them in the Pearl River system. Anybody got any they can send my way??

I'm fresh out. Would you like some grass carp eggs?

Just wondering would bowfin and various gars [I think they are the most similar in lifestyle to snakeheads] be able to compete with various snakeheads that were introduced into US waters? Not just the chinese one but ones found in FL and such. What's your opinion[s]?

Just wondering would bowfin and various gars [I think they are the most similar in lifestyle to snakeheads] be able to compete with various snakeheads that were introduced into US waters? Not just the chinese one but ones found in FL and such. What's your opinion[s]?

By compete what do you mean??

If you mean to hold their own to an invasive such as a snakehead and maintain a decent population density, then I would say yes and there are a variety of factors that would support this such as annual recruitment, Habitat use, etc. They would always be either in competition or would have neutral population interactions..

Otherwise they could not be considered species that could out compete or be used as a control for snakeheads as they pretty much would just level each other out.(hypothetically obviously this has not been tested)..

Since this seems to fit better in the existing snakehead topic, I'm going to see if I can find a way to sneak this in there a bit later.

What I mean is that can these fishes outcompete the invasive snakehead or not, though I think bowfins and gars should at least hold their own [but I am not sure].

I didn't notice the exotics section down below

Are the pic of video and the one held in the arm from the same place? They seem quite dissimilar since the one with both arms holding on the thumbnail to "Hooked on Frankenfish" [with strong black horizontal stripe] may be Channa micropeltes the fisherman got from his trip to Thailand-Malaysia?.

In Japan the largemouth bass become the very bad alien species eating out lots of native Japanese minnows, but I am not sure how native and introduced snakeheads there fare in the face of LMB. IIRC LMB is released in China waters too.


An interesting paper:
Changes in Fish Community after Invasion and during Control of Alien Fish Populations in Mizoro-ga-ike, Kyoto City

BTW the Channa marulius got US name as "Bullseye"?

We can't know for sure what will happen, but I'd bet, that, given enough time, the snakeheads will eventually eliminate the other predatory species now in the River. All three species will eat the young of the others. But the snakeheads seem to be raising their young to a greater stage of viability. It's largely conjecture on my part, but they appear to be growing at a much faster rate than the other predators are growing also.

I seined a large stretch of shoreline in the Crofton, MD pond where the snakeheads were introduced, before the population was wiped out with rotenone. There was a notable deficiency of forage fishes.

When the pond was finally poisoned, more than a thousand mature snakeheads were found--quite a high survival rate, considering that the original pair was introduced about a year before. NA predatory species don't reproduce that much, or grow that fast, over a single season.

Do you recall the video link posted to the NANFA e-mail list. It may have been last year of the year before. Anyway, the video showed thousands of snakeheads swimming up a Potomac tidal creek. Considering that they've only been in the river for about 5 years or so, that was a tremendous amount of snakeheads.

My guess is that they bury themselves in the mud in the daytime, like an eel does, and then emerge by night to feed on sleeping fish. The fishermen are having trouble catching them in any quantity because they're fishing at the wrong time of day.

By compete what do you mean??

If you mean to hold their own to an invasive such as a snakehead and maintain a decent population density, then I would say yes and there are a variety of factors that would support this such as annual recruitment, Habitat use, etc. They would always be either in competition or would have neutral population interactions..

Otherwise they could not be considered species that could out compete or be used as a control for snakeheads as they pretty much would just level each other out.(hypothetically obviously this has not been tested)..

In Asia snakeheads are fished during both day and night. Apart from fish bait and other meat they take spoon, spinner and plug too, but often the lure used are locally designed rather than colorful US/Europe/Japan imports.

How long does bowfin take care of their young? I 've heard that male bowfin is highly protective of their young for extend periods. They may not grow as fast though. As of gar only the longnose gar is there, but most gars imported here eat a lot and grow pretty fast.

What fishes were in MD pond prior to snakehead introduction? And is there really just one pair release?