I read this & thought it of intreast, as it made me think a little, of the cray fish that we have in this country which i belive came from the U.S.A. not so funny to them eh????

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U.S. fears over land-walking snakehead fish
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The land-walking snakehead fish that is native to Asia has been found in seven U.S. states and the Bush administration is set to announce a ban on U.S. imports of the predatory fish.

The snakehead, which can grow up to 3 feet long, eats other fish and can walk across land to find new sources of food in other lakes and streams. The fish can stay out of water for up to three days.

The fish came to light this summer after several snakeheads were found in a Maryland pond. The so-called Frankenfish were dumped there by a local resident who had initially imported them to make soup.

Snakeheads have been found in six other states: Hawaii, Florida, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to the Interior Department.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton will make the announcement that 28 species of snakehead fish will be subject to an government import and trade ban, unless a special permit is granted, a department official said on Monday.

"Interstate commerce will be illegal, you can't sell them across state lines," the official said.

The fish has primarily been imported to the United States for its excellent taste, even when eaten smoked or dried.

"Soup and other culinary delights, that's how it's gotten over here," the official said.

A recipe for watercress soup with snakehead fish can be found at Chinese food recipe Web site: http://www.foodno1.com.

On Tuesday, Norton was also to discuss what the government will do to help affected states destroy the fish.

Draining lakes that have snakeheads runs the risk of pumping water with some of the infant fish into nearby lakes and streams.

Maryland officials are considering poisoning a small lake where at least 80 baby snakeheads have been found.

A scientific plan this week is expected to test various chemicals on the baby snakeheads to pinpoint the best way to kill them.

"If they got into the larger (water) system, they could alter the food chain and displace other species," said John Surrick, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The people of northern Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma) believe a snakehead fish is a reincarnated sinner.

The freshwater fish has an ugly wide mouth and heavy scales, making it look like a snake's head and letting it swallow prey as large as it is.

Adults eat fish, frogs, aquatic birds and small mammals, while juvenile snakehead fish prey on earthworms, water bugs, tadpoles, dragonfly larvae and other organisms.

With sharp teeth and powerful jaws, big snakeheads can bite other fish in half.

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Snakeheads have been very common in the aquarium trade for years & are normally in a tank labelled 'Do not mix with other fish'. I was in one of my local shops when someone came in to complain that the snakehead they'd bought had eaten everything else in the tank, but they got pretty short shrift as they'd been specifically warned what they were lie but bought it anyway! It wouldn't surprise me at all if we'd had them relased in the UK by people who get bored with them or when they outgrow the tank but they probably wouldn't survive too long in our climate. The walking between ponds bit is actually pretty irrelevant as they only do it when the water they're in dries up or if there's no food, and even then they can't go that far! It may say they can stay out of water for 3 days, but it would have to be wet conditions for them to survive anything like that long.

Have a look here for how people buy them, then look here or here for how they end up!

seems a little bit of confusion in the first 2 links ,the first one says that they even attack humans (with the little fish) and the second says there harmless :confused: do they mellow out with age (the chap holding the big one isnt wearing chain gloves etc) or is there a vicious red stripey one and a chilled out black stripey one perhaps instead of shooting carp the hunters could have a go at snakeheads or do you think the fish are too mean

[ 23 July 2002, 11:36 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

Many nesting fish will attack anything that comes near the nest, but it's only an attempt to drive it away and not necessarily to actually cause damage or eat it. Not unlike a sheep attacking if you try and get at it's lamb or similar. There are numerous species & i've regularly seen the red & striped varieties for sale over here. The fish being held are the striped snakehead I think and I'd suspect that's the one they're talking about in the USA. Despite the scare story I don't think they have biting teeth, more the gripping type teeth hence the ability to hold them (you wouldn't want to put your hand in the mouth though). They were caught from the same place in Thailand where they catch the mekong catfish and the siamese carp and will very readily take lures.

i was attacked by a HUGE vicious stickleback once ,that was red and it had a nest ,coincidence or what ,except it wasnt in asia it was in a fish tank ...but it didnt crawl the earth it jumped out the tank and the kids flushed it down the bog ,but it might have mutated in the sewer ,or am i just talking crap

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Maryland officials are considering poisoning a small lake where at least 80 baby snakeheads have been found.

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It’s always nice to see an environment friendly outcome, eh?

Chesters,

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perhaps instead of shooting carp the hunters could have a go at snakeheads or do you think the fish are too mean

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I like it

Julian

[ 24 July 2002, 08:18 AM: Message edited by: Julian ]

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Originally posted by Julian:
It’s always nice to see an environment friendly outcome, eh?

Chesters,



Julian

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Well, you know the American gov feeling on environmental issues, look at Kyoto

I am rather taken aback at this attitued, particulary coming from a nation which is facing the possible extinction of its local species of crayfish to a foriegn invader, let alone one that recently destroyed several tens of millions of livestock due to an invasion of a "foreign" disease....
If poisoning a single(or, for that matter, several) individual lakes has the effect of stoping a potentialy damaging infestation of a foreign species, than I would say that for the habitat as a whole, it is extremely environmentaly friendly. If these fish turn out to be damaging to our local species, as, for example, the signal crayfish is to yours, then it will have been irresponsible to have allowed it to progress. Sacrificing an entire ecosystem over the worry about a single, solitary lake is ludicrious.
Had the original water where the signal crayfish first showed up been identified early, and had that lake then been poisoned before the things spread, you would likely have saved your native crayfish from possible extinction.
Now, ask yourself, is the temporary poisoning of single lake worth saving an entire species?
The native species in the lake involved can be quickly reestablished, but if a foriegn species gets loose and established in the watershed as a whole, it is then too late.
What would your reaction be if it were discovered that, say, smallmouth bass or even these same norther snakehead fish were found in one of your coarse lakes? Lets say they were breeding like flies, and the population of perch was being wiped out. Lets further postulate that this small lake was within 20 meters of a local river, that periodicaly flooded into the lake.(read the description of the lake involved here).
Now, you could poison off the lake, stop the almost certain establishment of a possibly destabalizing species in its tracks, and a month later could re-plant the lake with all the native species. Or, you could be "environmentaly friendly" and let the perch-eating bass/snakeheads get loose into the greater watershed, and hope that they suddenly loose their taste for your native species. BTW, these bass/snakeheads would also just love the nice, soft-finned roach, bream, barbell, chub, and nearly every other coures species you have.
But, you all would aparently happily risk the very real chance of damage to all of the above species, for the temporary loss of a single small lake.
Very, very strange.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mdgfishing:
[QB]I read this & thought it of intreast, as it made me think a little, of the cray fish that we have in this country which i belive came from the U.S.A. not so funny to them eh????

mdgfishing, dude, I didnt send you the crayfish, dont know who did, but it was probably an ENGLISHMAN who imported them and set them free onto your waterways NOT an American so please dont blame us. I dont think the snakehead is funny and dont want it in my swims, it could potentially eat all the little carp babies. It seems as though you are getting pleasure from our new threat, again, I didnt send the crayfish over to you and its not our fault it in your waterways so please dont be gleeful when something like this potentially befalls us.

Oatmeal Jack

US crays were brought over here for the food industry but soon escaped into our waterways.

I quite like the idea of catching fish that can walk on land. Imagine it stripping line of the clutch as it heads to a far bank bush, only for it not to stop and leg it down the A21