Meat-Eating Fish From China Introduced to Maryland Waters by Pet Owner

Tampa Bay on line ^ | 07-12-02 | Angela Potter, Associated Press Writer

[caddie]

Is this where Carville came from?

[caddie]

I should have scrolled through the whole thread before posting.

Nice picture!

[joesnuffy]

Bleach the pond

[Doomonyou]

Drain the swamp!

[Jonathon Spectre]

There are certain fish that simply should not be sold to your average pet owner. Red-tailed cats, snakeheads, arawana, etc, simply get too large. The vast, VAST majority of fishkeepers will never own a tank big enough to keep one of these fish in for more than a few monhts, and yet tropical fish stores continue to sell them.

The real fault here lies with the owner. It's not like the snakehead is an unknown fish. There is a wealth of information, both print and online, that stresses at the outset the monstrous size this aggressive predator grows to. The owner obviously decided that somehow their desire to have this sort of monster would overrule biology and bought them anyway.

I can't even tell you how many times I had to deal with idiots like this when I worked in the tropical fish biz. People are TOTALLY CLUELESS about fish. They look at them as toys or ornaments, not as living things that, well, LIVE. Then one day a year later they wake up and the "cute lil' snake-fish" is two feet long, flopping water on the floor, eating everything in sight and viciously attacking anything put in the tank. Do yourself a favor and READ UP ON ANY ANIMAL BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BUY IT. Once it's yours it's your responsibility forever.

Unless, of course, you're a typical American. Then you'll need a dictionary to look that "r-word" up.

[Sabertooth]

I disagree, in the absence of any evidence that the owner had any idea that the fish could be dangerous to the environment, or any reasonable way to have known.

No, I'm in the aquarium business, and I can say with certainty that this owner knew exactly what he was doing. By the time he released two adult snakeheads, he'd already fed them thousands of feeder goldfish. Snakeheads can be so mean they'll bite your hand if you put it in the tank. Most fish, including piranhas, won't.

Regulations for the importation of tropical fish vary, as is appropriate, from state to state, based on determinations of whether or not those fish might be a pest if released into the wild. There are a number of temperate and tropical species of snakehead, and I believe these specimens are among the former. Not sure if they are legal in Maryland or not.

[Benson_Carter]

what's amazing about that guy is how massive and sculpted his arms are while at the same time he has the leg muscles of a 12 year old!

[Illbay]

Prob'ly comes from wrasslin' gators for a livin'. You don't use your legs that much, 'cuz if the gator gets you off 'em and floatin' in the water, you're and EX-gator wrassler!

[carpio]

I think they look like Bowfin. Sometimes called Grennel or Chauzpix (shoe-pic).

Of course what would I know? I am only a carpio.

[teeman8r]

as a marylander i can assure you that as long as the snakehead fish is not carrying a concealed weapon, that it is welcomed here in maryland, hold on there's a knock at my door..................................yes..aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhh!

[buffyt]

I got into a "discussion" with a liberal about carnivores. She thinks that even a tasmanian devil can learn to be a vegetarian. I tried to explain to her that its system calls for meat, and not grass and herbs, as she suggested. She thinks we should accept vegan tasmanian devils. I gave up!

[jumpstartme]

Does she use a Mac or a PC? DOS or UNIX? Windows or Linux?

Perhaps the term choice only means something to her as it relates to killing babies? Vegan babies no doubt. Unbelievable.

I'd try by equating her direction of "proper" behavior to Nazism. I'm sure that would go over like a meaty piece of lettuce.

[1rudeboy]

Nuke the sight from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[chainsaw]

On Thursday, agency officials caught 99 young northern snakeheads by using an electroshock method that stuns them, causing them to float to the surface of the water.

Oh, for PETA sake.

[chainsaw]

3-foot-long, meat eating, walking fish??? I may never go swimming again!

Especially skinny dipping.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Communist invasion preceding the Kennedy takeover in Annapolis, no doubt...

[chainsaw]

Is this where Carville came from?

Well I heard that Carville eats meat, stays out of the water for three days, and travels on his belly. It might be.

[ReaganIsRight]

Notice they only found the 99 fish on Thursday AFTER the engineer caught 8 juvies. They shocked the pond previously and found nothing. The Fuhrer Glendenning has gutted the troops at all of DNR and they have little left but toadies. A sad statement for what once was an OK agency.

If they had any credibility this pond would be surrounded and poisened/drained to protect the Chessie Bay. 9 acre ponds are nothing, the bay extends all the way up to New York and has a huge drainage basin.

We've got the same non-functional a**h**es running the show as the US Forest Service that's burning down millions of acres because they didn't do their job.

[Polybius]

Meat eating fish, it's a good thing none of america's other fish are meat eating, people might use worms or other fish for bait.

Out here on the Left Coast, we have tofu-eating fish.

[strela]

(shudder) I hate dem dam gar. I actually jumped one that was about that size on water skis once. He was sunning himself on the surface of the lake near where I grew up, and it was either jump him or hit him and make him mad.