snakehead available in Ontario

[skywhitney]

I know that here in New Mexico there was a big conreversary cause a guy was caught with a snakehead so animal control euthanized the entire tank straight off. No questions just euthanasia. It cause a huge issue for a while, I'll have to find out the outcome.

 

[BambooBen]

I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in this forum right now.

I recently worked a job as a park naturalist in Northern Virginia and had only read bits about the snakehead before starting the job. The park was on the Potomac River and the snakehead population exploded over the few years I was there. It went from fishermen at the boat launch joking that there was monster fish out there to a couple of years later catching them every time and not catching any of the fish they wanted. I've hacked countless snakeheads in half after fishermen brought them back to the dock.

Point is no matter how careful one or two members of this forum would be it is not something to discuss. All it takes is one of you putting a video of it feeding on YouTube to convince 100 public idiots that they should get one too, and then just a couple of those getting tired of them and letting them go.

You shopping around and asking for them tells less reputable lfs that there is a market for them so they should order a few and see if they sell. You might take care of and never release yours, but most won't.

You can roll your eyes all you want but this is real and it is happening and a responsible owner forum like this should be doing everything it can to stop this problem.

 

[Marquis]

I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in this forum right now.

I recently worked a job as a park naturalist in Northern Virginia and had only read bits about the snakehead before starting the job. The park was on the Potomac River and the snakehead population exploded over the few years I was there. It went from fishermen at the boat launch joking that there was monster fish out there to a couple of years later catching them every time and not catching any of the fish they wanted. I've hacked countless snakeheads in half after fishermen brought them back to the dock.

Point is no matter how careful one or two members of this forum would be it is not something to discuss. All it takes is one of you putting a video of it feeding on YouTube to convince 100 public idiots that they should get one too, and then just a couple of those getting tired of them and letting them go.

You shopping around and asking for them tells less reputable lfs that there is a market for them so they should order a few and see if they sell. You might take care of and never release yours, but most won't.

You can roll your eyes all you want but this is real and it is happening and a responsible owner forum like this should be doing everything it can to stop this problem.

I was only asking if they are available in Ontario i know the risk they present

 

[kdpuffer]

I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in this forum right now.

I recently worked a job as a park naturalist in Northern Virginia and had only read bits about the snakehead before starting the job. The park was on the Potomac River and the snakehead population exploded over the few years I was there. It went from fishermen at the boat launch joking that there was monster fish out there to a couple of years later catching them every time and not catching any of the fish they wanted. I've hacked countless snakeheads in half after fishermen brought them back to the dock.

Point is no matter how careful one or two members of this forum would be it is not something to discuss. All it takes is one of you putting a video of it feeding on YouTube to convince 100 public idiots that they should get one too, and then just a couple of those getting tired of them and letting them go.

You shopping around and asking for them tells less reputable lfs that there is a market for them so they should order a few and see if they sell. You might take care of and never release yours, but most won't.

You can roll your eyes all you want but this is real and it is happening and a responsible owner forum like this should be doing everything it can to stop this problem.

I hear what your saying and I do agree to a point. The fact of the matter is that stupid people do stupid things regardless, by your reasoning the entire aquarium hobby should be banned because of a few people who don't know better. There are plenty of cool fish out there and equally as many morons who may introduce a foreign species. Let's have an example, we will use African cichlids. If a group of yellow labs was released into a local stream or lake it's entirely possible they could have the same impact. Just because they are not a predatory fish doesn't mean they are no risk. look at the silver carp, they have taken over simply because they eat and reproduce. Its unfair to judge us for keeping these fish when we are not the problem, judge the pea brains that are the problem. If they want to release a fish they will no matter what it is or what they are told. It's just a shame the snakehead has a bad rep because they are fascinating fish. There are so many invasive species in many parts of the world that have proven to be problems, alot of these introductions were done by our governments. Rainbow trout are not native to where I live but you can catch them in many rivers and lakes around here because they were introduced. May not have the impact as the snakehead but 100 years ago when they first got released it may have been the exact same scenario because of the competition for food with other fish and them eating the eggs/fry.

 

[bs6749]

I disagree that this is not something to discuss. Just because it may be illegal here in the United States (assuming that they are illegal nation-wide but I don't know for a fact) we still have freedom of speech to talk about it in our everyday lives and the internet is unregulated. Having a conversation and posting this question could raise more awareness to the situation and bring widespread bans in Canada as well.

I would be interested in keeping one, and I can assure you that when I no longer wanted it I would cut off it's head, burn the body, and would bury it two feet underground as a responsible owner would. It's the "idiots" that let them loose in the first place that should pay and not the responsible owners.

 

[Smithcinema]

I had 4 of them with my oscars about 6 years ago they are legal in NYC I thought ??? Any way u can buy anything in NYC anyway they are cool fish but they carpet surf all the time major jumpers but hardy as hell u can't kill them they would be out of my tank 4 hours at a time

 

[Bearchumjs]

I had 4 of them with my oscars about 6 years ago they are legal in NYC I thought ??? Any way u can buy anything in NYC anyway they are cool fish but they carpet surf all the time major jumpers but hardy as hell u can't kill them they would be out of my tank 4 hours at a time

LOL @ carpet surfing!

 

[Marquis]

I had 4 of them with my oscars about 6 years ago they are legal in NYC I thought ??? Any way u can buy anything in NYC anyway they are cool fish but they carpet surf all the time major jumpers but hardy as hell u can't kill them they would be out of my tank 4 hours at a time

They can breath air

 

[kdpuffer]

I hope mine don't try to explore, I'm gone to work for the week. Fingers crossed, if they do the wife may not be willing to them back for me, she has seen river monsters lol.