The Hunt for Channa, by Beta Mahatvaraj

The Hunt For Channa

by Beta Mahatvaraj
of Chennai, India
Aquarticles

Before you start thinking this is a recipe for channa samosa, let me remind you that Channa is the family of fish that are popularly known as snakeheads.

I had started keeping snakeheads sometime back and I was excited about the prospect of collecting them from the wild. Rufus's wedding provided the right excuse to make another trip to the 'Garden City.' Madan had hinted about a collection trip before we landed in Bangalore and we were all rearing to go (except Ravi who was kept in the dark!!). We had a nice group of guys from indianaquariumhobbyist.com and with Trevor around, I was sure we would never run out of laughs or Neera (some horribly smelling brew). (Neera is a palm oil syrup used for dieting - ed.). There was Madan, Adip, Sriram, Nagendra and Trevor from Bangalore, and Ravi, Venket, Shankar and myself from Chennai. We were joined by our navigator and fishing expert Krishnamurthy and his apprentice.

Our first stop was Harohalli, around 40 km. away from Bangalore. We had a bumpy ride as we got closer to a sort of irrigation canal.

CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR ENLARGEMENTS, THEN GO "BACK."

We parked our cars near the canal and Krishnamurthy led us through a side path which would take us downstream. There was a small irrigation ditch running alongside the path.

We sighted some Egeria densea growing in these ditches.

We reached downstream and had a look around searching for a good place to start fishing. The water flow was pretty fast so I did not expect to catch any Channa here.

Once we reached the stream Krishnamurthy quickly set up a storage area for the fish we were going to catch using a few sticks and a large net. Fish which were caught were dropped into this trap till we were ready to pack them.

We got into action right away with our nets. We didn't have much success as most of the fish were fast moving barbs here. The only fish we easily caught with our nets were some nicely coloured guppies, probably introduced into these waters to act as mosquito control.

Of course the most hard working guy was the Aquarium Society of Karnataka secretary Trevor whose motto was "Yo ho ho and a can of Neera." He promptly did babysitting for our bags.

We started using our nets near the marginal plants along the banks and we landed quite a few shrimps, some of which had red streaks. They were quite plentiful around the bushes and overhanging roots, and we caught them in all sizes. Nag was the lucky guy to take them home.

Krishnamurthy put his large nets to good use catching a lot of fish. It was a pleasure to watch how he throws the nets and draws them in. He landed mostly barbs and tilapia in his net.

The fish caught were quickly transported by his apprentice to the storage area.

Within an hour we had quite a big haul of fish. Trevor's look suggested that he might just enter the fish in the next Aquarium Society of Karnataka competition, we will have to wait and watch for that... or they might just end up in his frying pan. Sriram of course tried to balance the packet of fish on his head.

We were carrying an oxygen cylinder so we packed up all the fish in plastic covers and headed back to the cars. I used the opportunity to get a shot of the view from up there.

As we headed back we passed through some fields of laterite soil. They looked really red and seemed excellent substrate for a planted tank.

On our way back we came across a couple of rain fed ponds. We prodded around and found a lot of aquatic plants growing there. There were Aponogeton lakhonensis, Marsilea quadrifolia, Limnophila aquatica, Bacopa monieri and Vallisneria. Just as we started collecting them the rain started pouring and we had to hurry back to the car. Strangely we didn't sight any fish here - just tadpoles and more tadpoles.

Our next stop was an old bridge below which there was a small blackwater stream. There were lots of danios here, especially Esomus danricus. The banks of this stream had some beautiful worn out rocks. Ravi picked up some of these rocks for his tank. Here is Nag trying a front foot drive with his dip net.

Adip, Nag and myself did some exploring here even though the rain was troubling us, as it was a truly beautiful place.

The stream on the other side of the bridge had very few fish, probably because the water was very shallow. Adip used his dip net to catch a few tiny barbs. It was time to move on.

Our last stopover was another stream which seemed to be a better prospect, and it sure was. With our dip nets we were able to catch Oryzias melastigma (ricefish) and plenty of Cobitis taenia (spined loach). Once Krishnamurthy started throwing his net we caught a gorgeous snakehead, Channa punctata (Thanks for the ID Rahul!).

Snakehead, Channa punctata

It was really exciting getting a channa at the last leg of the trip. It made the trip all the more worthwhile. After we got back to Madan's house I was able to photograph some of the other fish we caught:

Rosy barb, Puntius conchonius
Flying barb, Esomus danricus

?? (Not yet identified)

The snakehead, Channa punctata

It was the end of a great trip As usual we got great hospitality from the Bangalore guys and had lots of fun. The channa caught the train back to Chennai with me and lots of other fish.