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Channa marulius (Hamilton, 1822)

Great snakehead
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Image of Channa marulius (Great snakehead)
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: Version 2024-1)

  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 |

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items
Diet composition
Food consumption
Food rations
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
Population dynamics
Growth parameters
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Maturity/Gills rel.
Fecundity
Spawning
Spawning aggregations
Eggs
Egg development
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
BRUVS - Videos
Anatomy
Gill area
Brain
Otolith
Physiology
Body composition
Nutrients
Oxygen consumption
Swimming type
Swimming speed
Visual pigments
Fish sound
Diseases & Parasites
Toxicity (LC50s)
Genetics
Genetics
Heterozygosity
Heritability
Human related
Aquaculture systems
Aquaculture profiles
Strains
Ciguatera cases
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
Collaborators
Taxonomy
Common names
Synonyms
Morphology
Morphometrics
Pictures
References
References

Tools

Bio-Quiz | E-book | Field guide | Length-frequency wizard | Life-history tool | Point map | Classification Tree | Catch-MSY |

Special reports

Check for Aquarium maintenance | Check for Species Fact Sheets | Check for Aquaculture Fact Sheets

Download XML

Summary page | Point data | Common names | Photos

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Alien/Invasive Species database | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

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=0.00708 (0.00435 - 0.01153), b=2.92 (2.79 - 3.05), 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.