Peacock Snakehead

About

Before anything else: whether you may keep this fish depends on where you live, and snakeheads are the sharpest case of that in the whole hobby. In the European Union the instrument is Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014, which maintains the Union list of invasive alien species - 114 species as of August 2026 - and for anything on it, keeping, breeding, transport, sale and release are all prohibited. Exactly one snakehead is on that list: Channa argus, the northern snakehead, added in 2022. Channa pulchra is not, and Lithuania's separate national list, the Invazinių Lietuvoje rūšių sąrašas approved on 28 November 2016 and last amended on 14 November 2023, holds seventeen animals of which only two are fish, neither of them a Channa. So in Lithuania, and in the EU generally, buying and keeping this species is lawful. Cross the Atlantic and the answer reverses. The United States restricts the entire family: 50 CFR 16.13 prohibits importation or interstate transport of 'any live fish or viable eggs of snakehead fishes of the genera Channa and Parachanna ... of the Family Channidae', and the 2002 final rule behind it recorded that the Fish and Wildlife Service 'has determined that all 28 of the currently recognized species of snakehead fishes in the Channidae family should be listed as injurious fishes under the Lacey Act'. C. pulchra was described by Ralf Britz in 2007, after that rule, so it is caught by the family wording rather than named in the list. The same rule noted that 'At least 16 States prohibit possession of live snakeheads', naming Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Washington. Two things follow. Check your own jurisdiction before you buy, because 'legal in the EU' is not an answer anywhere else, and lists are revised every few years. And whatever your country says about keeping it, releasing it is prohibited wherever it is not native - that is the one rule here with no exception worth relying on. Underneath the law is a 30 cm hill-stream predator from the Kyeintali Chaung in southern Rakhine State, Myanmar: a grey body speckled with black dots and orange patches, four semicircular white bands on each pectoral fin, and a dorsal fin whose black blotches are random enough that Practical Fishkeeping warns they 'do not form a way to differentiate sexes'. It is an obligate air-breather that drowns without surface access, and it escapes - PFK's line is that they 'manage to escape out of the most unimaginable, tiniest holes'. Maidenhead Aquatics sums up the husbandry in one sentence: 'A subtropical fish that needs a cool winter rest.'

Care

One fish, one tank, and the tank is not small: Practical Fishkeeping puts the base at 100 x 45 x 45 cm or larger, about 200 litres. Sources differ on company, so plan for the harder outcome. Maidenhead Aquatics says 'Young pulchra snakeheads may be kept in groups until two fish pair up, after which they'll usually prove compatible in the longer term in the right set up'; AquaInfo says the fish 'are quite aggressive towards conspecifics and sometimes inflict great (and deadly) damage on each other' and that once a pair forms the rest must come out. If no pair forms you are housing a single fish, so buy for that. Do not hold it at one temperature all year. PFK is specific - '20-22C/68-72F will do nicely', with summer warmth to 25 C or a little more being normal - and AquaInfo asks for a season at 19-22 C. Maidenhead calls these annual rest periods 'imperative for long-term health, vitality, and breeding potential': shorten the day, drop the water level, feed almost nothing and cut back water changes while the fish is resting. The lid must be heavy, tight and complete, with a small gap of humid air left beneath it, because this fish breathes air and a tank filled to the brim kills it as surely as an open one. Sand or a thin gravel layer, driftwood, rocky caves, floating cover, dim light. There are no safe tankmates: anything that fits in that mouth is food, and anything that does not still has to survive a winter at 20 C.

Diet

Predator on small fishes and insects. Earthworms, crickets, mealworms, whole prawn, mussel, bloodworm and mosquito larvae, with a good dried food as part of the staple. No mammalian or avian meat and no feeder fish. Expect it to eat little or nothing through the cool winter rest.

Telling males from females

There is no reliable way to sex this species by eye. That is the honest answer, not a gap in our data.

Similar species

Same category and the closest water parameters — if this species isn't quite it, start here.

Sold in Lithuania

These Lithuanian shops listed this species in their public catalogue (checked August 8, 2026). Stock moves — ask before you travel.

These links are unpaid: we get nothing for them and ask for nothing.

Frequently asked questions

What tank size does a Peacock Snakehead need?

A Peacock Snakehead needs an aquarium of at least 200 litres (52.8 US gallons) with a footprint at least 100 cm (39.4 in) long — for this species, swimming length matters as much as raw volume.

What water parameters does a Peacock Snakehead need?

Peacock Snakehead does best at 16–28 °C (60.8–82.4 °F), pH 6–7.5 and a general hardness of 2–15 °dGH.

Is the Peacock Snakehead suitable for beginners?

Peacock Snakehead is a demanding species best attempted with some experience — it needs stable, closely watched conditions to thrive.

Sources

• FishBase — Channa pulchra (Colored snakehead)
• Wikipedia — Channa pulchra
• Maidenhead Aquatics (Fishkeeper) — Peacock Snakehead, Channa pulchra
• Practical Fishkeeping — Channa pulchra (Stefan van der Voort, September 2008)
• AquaInfo — Channa pulchra, Peacock Snakehead
• European Commission — Invasive alien species
• Wikipedia — List of invasive alien species of Union concern
• LR aplinkos ministerija — Invazinių Lietuvoje rūšių sąrašas
• US Federal Register — Injurious Wildlife Species; Snakeheads (family Channidae), 67 FR 62193 (4 October 2002)
• eCFR — 50 CFR 16.13, importation of live or dead fish, mollusks, and crustaceans (current text)