Channa marulius, Great snakehead : fisheries, aquaculture, gamefish, aquarium

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Channa marulius (Hamilton, 1822)

Great snakehead
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Channa marulius
Picture by Jean-Francois Helias / Fishing Adventures Thailand

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Anabantiformes (Gouramies, snakeheads) > Channidae (Snakeheads)
Etymology: Channa: Greek, channe, -es = an anchovy (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Hamilton.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; benthopelagic; potamodromous (Ref. 51243). Tropical; 24°C - 28°C (Ref. 2060)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Asia: India to China, south to Thailand and Cambodia (Ref. 12693) and Pakistan (Ref. 4833).

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 183 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 6351); common length : 46.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 4833); max. published weight: 30.0 kg (Ref. 4833)

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Obligate air-breathing (Ref. 126274); Adults occur in sluggish or standing water in canals, lakes, and swamps (Ref. 12693). Inhabit waters with submerged aquatic vegetation (Ref. 12693). Usually found only in deep pools in rivers and occasionally in lakes. They enter flooded forest (Ref. 9497). Carnivorous and subsist on fish, frogs, snakes, insects, earthworms and tadpoles (Ref. 1479). There are reports of this species taking water birds, snakes, and rodents. Males are territorial. May bite when caught (Elliot Bligh, pers. comm., 2001).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Builds floating nest of weeds and leaves where the orange-yellow eggs are deposited. Eggs hatch in 36 to 48 hours and fry remain in the nest for about 10 days after hatching. Parents guards the fry for about a month.

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Kottelat, M., 2013. The fishes of the inland waters of Southeast Asia: a catalogue and core bibliography of the fishes known to occur in freshwaters, mangroves and estuaries. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 2013 (Suppl. 27):1-663. (Ref. 94476)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 06 October 2009

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Traumatogenic





Human uses

Fisheries: commercial; aquaculture: commercial; gamefish: yes; aquarium: public aquariums
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

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Common names
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Predators
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Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00776 (0.00454 - 0.01328), b=2.98 (2.83 - 3.13), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  4.5   ±0.80 se; based on food items.
Generation time: 4.8 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 1 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (K=0.23).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Moderate to high vulnerability (55 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Unknown.
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 34 [15, 87] mg/100g; Iron = 0.767 [0.514, 1.242] mg/100g; Protein = 18.3 [17.3, 19.4] %; Omega3 = 0.198 [0.080, 0.492] g/100g; Selenium = 54.1 [21.9, 128.7] μg/100g; VitaminA = 55.8 [20.4, 150.1] μg/100g; Zinc = 0.697 [0.481, 1.074] mg/100g (wet weight); based on nutrient studies.