Channa

Genus of fishes

For other uses, see Channa (disambiguation).

Channa

Channa micropeltes (above, one of the largest species) and C. bleheri (below, one of the smallest)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Chordata
Class:  | Actinopterygii
Order:  | Anabantiformes
Family:  | Channidae
Genus:  | Channa
Scopoli, 1777
Type species
Channa orientalis

Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801

Combined natural range of the Channa species
Synonyms

Bostrychoides Lacépède, 1801
Ophiocephalus Bloch, 1793
Philypnoides Bleeker, 1849
Psiloides Fischer, 1813
Pterops Rafinesque, 1815

Channa is a genus of predatory fish in the family Channidae, commonly known as snakeheads, native to freshwater habitats in Asia. This genus contains about 50 scientifically described species. The genus has a wide natural distribution extending from Iraq in the west, to Indonesia and China in the east, and parts of Siberia in the Far East. A particularly high richness of species exists in Myanmar (Burma), Bangladesh and northeastern India, and many Channa species live nowhere else. In contrast, a few widespread species have been introduced to several regions outside their natural range, where they often become invasive. The large and medium-sized Channa species are among the most common staple food fish in several Asian countries, and they are extensively cultured.[1] Apart from their importance as a food fish, snakeheads are consumed in some regions as a traditional medicine for wound healing and reducing postoperative pain and discomfort,[1] and collected for the international aquarium pet trade.[2]

All snakeheads are highly predatory, and the diets of the various species of Channa include fish, amphibians (like frogs), snakes, rodents, birds, and invertebrates (insects and crustaceans).[1] They have a labyrinth organ, which allows them to breathe air for short periods, and they use this adaptation to travel across land in the event that their habitat becomes inhospitable. They are mostly solitary or live in monogamous pairs that are highly aggressive towards outsiders of their own species, but C. pleurophthalma often occurs in small groups. Larger species are mostly nestbrooding (making a nest of vegetation at the water surface),[1] and the dwarfs mostly paternal mouthbrooding, but exceptions occur; the large C. barca is a paternal mouthbrooder and the dwarf C. bleheri is a free-spawner (the eggs float to the surface where the parents take care of them, but they do not mouthbrood or built a nest).[3]

## Taxonomy

[edit]

The taxonomy of the genus Channa is incomplete, and a comprehensive revision of the family has not been performed. A phylogenetic study in 2010 has indicated the likelihood of the existence of undescribed species of channids in Southeast Asia,[4] and a more comprehensive phylogenetic study in 2017 indicated that several undescribed species exist in Asia (as well as an undescribed Parachanna in Africa).[5] In 2011, the Malabar snakehead Channa diplogramma from peninsular India was shown to be a distinct species, 146 years after its initial description and 134 years after it was synonymised with C. micropeltes, establishing it is an endemic species of peninsular India. The study also suggested that the species shared a most recent common ancestor with C. micropeltes, around 9.52 to 21.76 MYA.[6][7]

### Species

[edit]

Channa andrao Channa argus Channa aurantimaculata Channa pleurophthalma Channa pulchra

Currently, 50 recognized species are placed in this genus:[8][9][10]

* Channa amari Dey et al., 2019[11] — likely a synonym of C. brunnea
* Channa amphibeus (McClelland, 1845) (Borna snakehead)
* Channa andrao Britz, 2013[12]
* Channa ara (Deraniyagala, 1945)
* Channa argus (Cantor, 1842) (northern snakehead)
* Channa aristonei Praveenraj, Thackeray, Singh, Uma, Moulitharan & Mukhim, 2020
* Channa asiatica (Linnaeus, 1758) (small snakehead)
* Channa aurantimaculata Musikasinthorn, 2000 (orange-spotted snakehead)
* Channa aurantipectoralis Lalhlimpuia, Lalronunga & Lalramliana, 2016[13]
* Channa auroflammea Adamson, Britz and S. Lieng, 2019[14]
* Channa aurolineata (F. Day, 1870)
* Channa bankanensis (Bleeker, 1853)
* Channa baramensis (Steindachner, 1901)
* Channa barca (F. Hamilton, 1822) (barca snakehead)
* Channa bipuli Praveenraj, Uma, Moulitharan & Bleher, 2018[15]
* Channa bleheri Vierke, 1991 (rainbow snakehead)
* Channa brahmacharyi Chakraborty, Yardi & Mukherjee, 2020[16]
* Channa brunnea Praveenraj, Uma, Moulitharan & Kannan, 2019[17]
* Channa burmanica B. L. Chaudhuri, 1919
* Channa coccinea Ralf Britz, Tan Heok Hui, & Lukas Rüber, 2024[18]
* Channa cyanospilos (Bleeker, 1853)
* Channa diplogramma (F. Day, 1865) (Malabar snakehead)
* Channa gachua (F. Hamilton, 1822) (dwarf snakehead)
* Channa harcourtbutleri (Annandale, 1918) (Burmese snakehead)
* Channa hoaluensis Nguyen, 2011[19]
* Channa kelaartii (Günther, 1861)[5]
* Channa limbata (Cuvier, 1831)[5]
* Channa lipor Praveenraj, Uma, Moulitharan & Singh, 2019[20]
* Channa longistomata (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012)
* Channa lucius (G. Cuvier, 1831) (forest snakehead)
* Channa maculata (Lacépède, 1801) (blotched snakehead)
* Channa marulioides (Bleeker, 1851) (emperor snakehead)
* Channa marulius (F. Hamilton, 1822) (great snakehead)
* Channa melanoptera (Bleeker, 1855)
* Channa melanostigma Geetakumari & Vishwanath Waikhom, 2011[21]
* Channa melasoma (Bleeker, 1851) (black snakehead)
* Channa micropeltes (G. Cuvier, 1831) (giant snakehead)
* Channa ninhbinhensis V. H. Nguyễn, 2011[19]
* Channa nox C. G. Zhang, Musikasinthorn & Watanabe, 2002 (night snakehead)
* Channa orientalis Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801 (Ceylon snakehead)
* Channa ornatipinnis Britz, 2008
* Channa panaw Musikasinthorn, 1998 (Panaw snakehead)
* Channa pardalis Knight, 2016[22]
* Channa pleurophthalma (Bleeker, 1851)
* Channa pomanensis Gurumayum & Tamang, 2016
* Channa pseudomarulius (Günther, 1861)
* Channa pulchra Britz, 2007
* Channa punctata (Bloch, 1793) (spotted snakehead)
* Channa pyrophthalmus Ralf Britz, Tan Heok Hui, & Lukas Rüber, 2024[18]
* Channa quinquefasciata Praveenraj et al., 2018[23]
* Channa rakhinica Ralf Britz, Tan Heok Hui, & Lukas Rüber, 2024[18]
* Channa rara Britz, Dahanukar, Anoop & Ali, 2019[24]
* Channa royi Praveenraj et al., 2018 (Andaman emerald snakehead)[25] — likely a synonym of C. harcourtbutleri[24]
* Channa rubora Ralf Britz, Tan Heok Hui, & Lukas Rüber, 2024[18]
* Channa shingon M. Endruweit, 2017)[26]
* Channa stewartii (Playfair (fr), 1867) (Assamese snakehead)
* Channa stiktos Lalramliana, Knight, Lalhlimpuia & Singh, 2018[27]
* Channa striata (Bloch, 1793) (striped snakehead)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Kumar, K.; R. Kumar; S. Saurabh; M. Sahoo; A.K. Mohanty; P.L. Lalrinsanga; U.L. Mohanty; P. Jayasankar (2012). Snakehead Fishes: Fact Sheets. Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar.
2. ^ "Quick Guide to Snakeheads". PracticalFishkeeping. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
3. ^ "Channa bleheri". SeriouslyFish. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
4. ^ Adamson, E.A.S.; Hurwood, D.A.; Mather, P.B. (2010). "A reappraisal of the evolution of Asian snakehead fishes (Pisces, Channidae) using molecular data from multiple genes and fossil calibration". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 56 (2): 707–717\. Bibcode:2010MolPE..56..707A. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.03.027. PMID 20359539.
5. ^ a b c Conte-Grand, C.; Britz, R.; Dahanukar, N.; Raghavan, R.; Pethi-yagoda, R.; Tan, H.H.; Hadiaty, R.K.; Yaakob, N.S.; Rüber, L. (2017). "Barcoding snakeheads (Teleostei, Channidae) re-visited: Discovering greater species diversity and resolving perpetuated taxonomic confusions". PLOS ONE. 12 (9): e0184017. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1284017C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0184017. PMC 5606936. PMID 28931084.
6. ^ Benziger, A.; Philip, S.; Raghavan, R.; Ali, P.H.A.; Sukumaran, M.; Tharian, J.C.; Dahanukar, N.; Baby, F.; Peter, R.; Rema Devi, K.; Radhakrishnan, K.V.; Haniffa, M.A.; Britz, R.; Antunes, A. (2011). "Unraveling a 146 Years Old Taxonomic Puzzle: Validation of Malabar Snakehead, Species-Status and Its Relevance for Channid Systematics and Evolution". PLOS ONE. 6 (6): e21272. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...621272B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021272. PMC 3123301. PMID 21731689.
7. ^ Li, X.; Musikasinthorn, P.; Kumazawa, Y. (2006). "Molecular phylogenetic analyses of snakeheads (Perciformes: Channidae) using mitochondrial DNA sequences". Ichthyological Research. 53 (2): 148–159\. Bibcode:2006IchtR..53..148L. doi:10.1007/s10228-005-0321-3.
8. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Channa". FishBase. February 2019 version.
9. ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Channa". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
10. ^ Praveenraj, Jayasimhan; Thackeray, Tejas; Singh, Sadokpam Gojendro; Uma, Arumugam; Moulitharan, N.; Mukhim, Bankit K. (December 2020). "A New Species of Snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, Northeastern India". Copeia. 108 (4): 938–947\. doi:10.1643/CI2020007. ISSN 0045-8511. S2CID 230507112.
11. ^ Dey, A.; Chowdhury, B.R.; Nur, R.; Sarkar, D.; Kosygin, L.; Barat, S. (2019). "Channa amari, a new species of Snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from North Bengal, India". International Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences. 9 (2): 299–304.
12. ^ Britz, R. (2013). "Channa andrao, a new species of dwarf snakehead from West Bengal, India (Teleostei: Channidae)". Zootaxa. 3731 (2): 287–294\. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3731.2.9. PMID 25277571.
13. ^ Lalhlimpuia, D.v.; Lalronunga, S.; Lalramliana (2016). "Channa aurantipectoralis, a new species of snakehead from Mizoram, north-eastern India (Teleostei: Channidae)". Zootaxa. 4147 (3): 343–350\. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4147.3.7. PMID 27515622.
14. ^ Adamson, E.A.S.; R. Britz; S. Lieng (2019). "Channa auroflammea, a new species of snakehead fish of the Marulius group from the Mekong River in Laos and Cambodia (Teleostei: Channidae)". Zootaxa. 4571 (3): 398–408\. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4571.3.7. PMID 31715807.
15. ^ Praveenraj, J.; A. Uma; N. Moulitharan; H. Bleher (2018). "Channa bipuli, a new species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from Assam, northeast India". Aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology. 24 (4): 153–166.
16. ^ Chakraborty, P.; Yardi, K.; Mukherjee, P. (2020). "Channa brahmacharyi sp. nov., a new species of dwarf snakehead from Meghalaya, North-East India (Teleostei: Channidae)". Species. 21 (67): 101–108.
17. ^ Kannan, Rajesh; Moulitharan, Nallathambi; Uma, Arumugam; Praveenraj, Jayasimhan (2019-06-27). "Channa brunnea, a new species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from West Bengal, India". Zootaxa. 4624 (1): 59–70\. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4624.1.4. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 31716236.
18. ^ a b c d Ralf Britz, Tan Heok Hui, Lukas Rüber (2024). "Four new species of Channa from Myanmar (Teleostei, Labyrinthici, Channidae)". Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 72: 1–25\. doi:10.26107/RBZ-2024-0001.
19. ^ a b Nguyen, V.H. (2011). "Two new species belong to genus Channa (Channidae, Perciformes) discovered in Ninh Binh province, Vietnam". Vietnam Journal of Biology. 33 (4): 8–17.
20. ^ "A New Species of Dwarf Channa (Teleostei: Channidae) from Meghalaya, Northeast India". Novataxa. 5 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
21. ^ Geetakumari, K.; Vishwanath, W. (2011). "Channa melanostigma, a new species of freshwater snakehead from north-east India (Teleostei: Channidae)". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 107 (3): 231–235.
22. ^ Knight, J.D.M. (2016). "Channa pardalis, a new species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from Meghalaya, northeastern India". Journal of Threatened Taxa. 8 (3): 8583–8589\. doi:10.11609/jott.2168.8.3.8583-8589.
23. ^ Praveenraj, J.; A. Uma; J. D. M. Knight; N. Moulitharan; S. Balasubramanian; K. Bineesh; H. Bleher (2018). "Channa quinquefasciata, a new species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from Torsa River, North Bengal, India". Aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology. 24 (4): 141–152.
24. ^ a b Britz, R.; N. Dahanukar; V.K. Anoop; A. Ali (2019). "Channa rara, a new species of snakehead fish from the Western Ghats region of Maharashtra, India (Teleostei: Labyrinthici: Channidae)". Zootaxa. 4683 (4): zootaxa.4683.4.8. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4683.4.8. PMID 31715914.
25. ^ Thakur, V. R.; Raymond, J. J. A.; Halalludin, Beni; Kiruba-Sankar, R.; Knight, J. D. M.; Praveenraj, J. (2018-12-31). "Channa royi (Teleostei: Channidae): a new species of snakehead from Andaman Islands, India". Indian Journal of Fisheries. 65 (4). ISSN 0970-6011.
26. ^ Endruweit, M. (2017). "Description of a new dwarf snakehead (Perciformes: Channidae) from western Yunnan". Vertebrate Zoology. 67 (2): 173–178\. doi:10.3897/vz.67.e31581.
27. ^ Lalramliana; J. D. M. Knight; D. V. Lalhlimpuia; M. Singh (2018). "Integrative taxonomy reveals a new species of snakehead fish, Channa stiktos (Teleostei: Channidae), from Mizoram, North Eastern India". Vertebrate Zoology. 68 (2): 165–175\. doi:10.3897/vz.68.e31604.

Taxon identifiers

Channa|

* Wikidata: Q618552
* Wikispecies: Channa
* BOLD: 47886
* CoL: 3M54
* EoL: 24032
* EPPO: 1CHNNG
* GBIF: 2387196
* iNaturalist: 87358
* ITIS: 166662
* NBN: NHMSYS0021168960
* NCBI: 33789
* Open Tree of Life: 16782
* Paleobiology Database: 252926
* Plazi: D28DC2D2-1C4A-13B2-7756-3EBD94F1E0CC
* WoRMS: 268714
* ZooBank: 56117443-0240-45A4-A15F-0CC3451E2706

Authority control databases

National|

* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX