Why Are Snakeheads Illegal?

Описание: Why are snakeheads illegal? This may seem a very strange question at first because in many countries it is completely legal to keep snakeheads and if you have watched my channel before you'll know that i keep 3 species of snakehead fish. The majority of my youtube audience is from the USA and in the US Snakeheads are banned but why are snakeheads illegal in the US?

The simple reason as to why snakeheads are illegal in the US is because of irresponsible fish keepers that instead of rehoming fish when it grows to large or giving the fish away to an aquarium they choose to release their aquarium fish into the wild. These now invasive fish cause a big problem to the native fish and prey items and the ecosystem as a whole.

Florida has one of the worst invasive fish problems in the US with common aquarium fish being found in the waters of Florida such as oscars, plecos, and knife fish. One of the reasons why Florida is such a hot spot for invasive fish species is because of its hot and humid climate which is very similar to the tropical places where popular aquarium fish are found.

This poses a very important question as why is it legal to keep these tropical fish that have the potential to be invasive but snakeheads are still banned in the USA? The snakeheads are banned because they have certain behavioural traits that make them extra dangerous to the ecosystem. One of the reasons why the snakeheads are banned is because they make such good parents and protect their fry for a very long time which means if there is a breeding pair in a alien ecosystem there is a very good chance that these snakeheads will make it to adulthood and repopulate again.

Another reason why the snakeheads are banned in the US is because of their predatory nature which means they will take out a lot of the prey fish and crustaceans that the native predators such as bass and gars would eat. The third reason why snakeheads are illegal in the USA is because of their amazing adaptability as they can breathe both atmospheric oxygen as well and breathing through their gills and this means that they can survive in waters that many other species can't.

One of the biggest problem snakeheads in the US is the northern snakehead and this is a snakehead that can survive in colder water and because of this it is illegal for me to keep this species of snakehead in the UK. The reason why i am allowed to keep snakeheads in the UK is because the climate is too cold for these snakeheads to live year round in the UK but some parts of the northern United States and Canada has a similar climate to the UK so why arent snakeheads legal in these areas?

This poses a very interesting question, is a blanket ban on all snakeheads the only option in the US? There are many species of dwarf specialised snakeheads that would not be able to survive in the wild if they were realised by aquarists so is it possible to legalise these species of snakehead?

Thank you for watching i hope you enjoyed :)