- Dwarf snakeheads
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Channa orientalis drawing.
Francis Day (1889): The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. (Fishes, Volume 1 and Volume 2).Dwarf snakeheads is term coined by aquarists to describe a group of snakehead fishes growing only 10 inches (25 cm) maximum.
The following snakeheads belong to this group:
- Channa bleheri
- Channa burmanica
- Channa gachua
- Channa harcourtbutleri
- Channa orientalis
- Channa stewartii
In addition to those scientifically described snakeheads, several other undescribed snakeheads belong to this group. Those are (with trade names)
- Channa spec. 5-stripe
- Channa spec. lal-cheng, also known as blue bleheri and Channa spec. Assam
- Channa spec. true-blue, also known as Channa spec. galaxy-blue
Besides their commonality of being of small size, two other features characterize this group more specifically.
- zoogeographically those fish belong to the Indian ichthyofauna
- this group of fish are all but one mouthbrooders. Channa bleheri is the only nestbrooding species of this group.
Further information
- For further taxonomic information see Channa on Wikispecies.
External links
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