Snakehead Fish

By: Sarah and Jay

Warning!! There are piranhas disguised as a fish in USA. They are the snakehead fish. They are very dangerous. They cause problems for native fishes. There are few possible solutions.

Snakehead fish are from Korea and China. They can grow to 36 inches. They eat anything that is their size. If it is big enough it can eat a human. They can breathe air for a short time. They can live from ten to fifteen years. They came to the USA to be pets but they got too big so people threw them in lakes. They then mated with other snakehead fish and reproduced in to colonies.

The snakehead fish eat other species of fish and are dangerous to the other species of fish. It can reproduce making massive colonies. Then the snakehead colonies will eat all the native fish in the ponds or lakes.

There are possible solutions to stopping the snakehead problem. One is to poison the ponds. That will kill the snakehead fish that live there. The other solution is capturing all of the snakehead fish and shipping them to China. Another solution is to eat and hunt all of the snakehead fish in USA. You can eat those fish. They are popular in China for their good taste.

Snakehead fish are dangerous for the USA. They are from China and Korea. They can harm the native fish too. There are three solutions to control the problems the snakehead fishes cause for the USA.

References

Maryland state officials start poisoning alien snakehead fish, USA Today

A Creepy Catch of the Day By David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post

Genetic Profiling of Northern Snakehead Fish May Help Scientists Track Their Spread in U.S. Waters By Rita Zeidner, Smithsonian National Zoological Park