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Dwarf snakehead is a term coined by aquarists to describe a group of ''Channa'' snakehead fishes growing to about maximum. They are found in freshwater habitats (often streams) in South and Southeast Asia, and southern China.Endruweit, M. (2017). Description of a new dwarf snakehead (Perciformes: Channidae) from western Yunnan. Vertebrate Zoology 67(2): 173-178.
The following snakeheads belong to this group:Lalramliana, J. D. M. Knight, D. V. Lalhlimpuia and 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.
*'' Channa andrao''
*'' Channa aurantipectoralis''
*'' Channa baramensis''
*'' Channa bipuli''
*'' Channa bleheri''
*'' Channa brunnea''
*''
Several of these only recently received their scientific name, but were already known among aquarists before. Examples of this are ''C. andrao'' (described 2013, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "Lal Cheng" or "blue bleheri"), ''C. pardalis'' (described 2016, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "true blue" or "galaxy blue"), ''C. quinquefasciata'' (described 2018, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "five stripe"), ''C. torsaensis'' (described 2018, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "cobalt blue"), and ''C. brunnea'' (described 2019, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "chocolate bleheri"). A few dwarf snakeheads that are known from the aquarium trade remain undescribed, including:
*''Channa'' sp. "Burmese red rim rainbow" or "redfin". Similar to ''Channa gachua'' but has black dots on the body and fin edges are darker.
*''Channa'' sp. "fire and ice".
Besides their commonality of being of small size, dwarf snakeheads generally are paternal
Channa bleheri
Retrieved 12 February 2019. Although several dwarf snakeheads are very close relatives, overall the group is not
Comprehensive information on snakeheads at snakeheads.org
Channidae Fish common names
Dwarf snakehead is a term coined by aquarists to describe a group of ''Channa'' snakehead fishes growing to about maximum. They are found in freshwater habitats (often streams) in South and Southeast Asia, and southern China.Endruweit, M. (2017). Description of a new dwarf snakehead (Perciformes: Channidae) from western Yunnan. Vertebrate Zoology 67(2): 173-178.
The following snakeheads belong to this group:Lalramliana, J. D. M. Knight, D. V. Lalhlimpuia and 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.
*'' Channa andrao''
*'' Channa aurantipectoralis''
*'' Channa baramensis''
*'' Channa bipuli''
*'' Channa bleheri''
*'' Channa brunnea''
*''Channa burmanica
''Channa burmanica'' is a species of snakehead which is endemic to northern Burma. It is a very small species of snakehead included in the informal group of dwarf snakeheads. Its colouring closely resembles that of ''Channa gachua'' and ''Chann ...
''
*''Channa gachua
''Channa gachua'', the dwarf snakehead, is a species of fish in the family Channidae. The name "dwarf snakehead" is also used for several other species of small snakeheads. ''C. gachua'' is native to freshwater habitats in southern Asia, where i ...
''
*'' Channa harcourtbutleri''
*''Channa kelaartii
''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 extend ...
''
*'' Channa limbata''
*'' Channa lipor''
*'' Channa melanostigma''
*''Channa orientalis
The Ceylon snakehead (''Channa orientalis'') is a species of snakehead found in freshwater habitats, typically shaded streams, in southwestern Sri Lanka (although occasionally claimed to occur in other countries, this is misidentifications of r ...
''
*'' Channa ornatipinnis''
*'' Channa panaw''
*'' Channa pardalis''
*''Channa pulchra
''Channa pulchra'' is a species of snakehead fish in the family Channidae which is native to Myanmar. It was first described in 2007 by R. Britz from a specimen collected from the Kyeintali Chaung (stream) basin in Rakhine Yoma, western Myanmar. ...
''
*'' Channa quinquefasciata''
*'' Channa rara''
*'' Channa royi''
*'' Channa shingon''
*'' Channa stewartii''
*'' Channa stiktos''
*'' Channa torsaensis''
Some of these are borderline dwarf snakeheads, slightly surpassing in maximum length (e.g., ''C. pulchra'' has been called a dwarf snakehead, but may reach ). In contrast, the smallest dwarf snakehead species are less than .
Several of these only recently received their scientific name, but were already known among aquarists before. Examples of this are ''C. andrao'' (described 2013, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "Lal Cheng" or "blue bleheri"), ''C. pardalis'' (described 2016, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "true blue" or "galaxy blue"), ''C. quinquefasciata'' (described 2018, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "five stripe"), ''C. torsaensis'' (described 2018, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "cobalt blue"), and ''C. brunnea'' (described 2019, previously known as ''C.'' sp. "chocolate bleheri"). A few dwarf snakeheads that are known from the aquarium trade remain undescribed, including:
*''Channa'' sp. "Burmese red rim rainbow" or "redfin". Similar to ''Channa gachua'' but has black dots on the body and fin edges are darker.
*''Channa'' sp. "fire and ice".
Besides their commonality of being of small size, dwarf snakeheads generally are paternal mouthbrooder
Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation and buccal incubation, is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a va ...
s (confirmed in some species, suspected in others). An exception is the free-spawning ''C. bleheri'' where the eggs float to the surface and the parents take care of them (no mouthbrooding).SeriouslyFishChanna bleheri
Retrieved 12 February 2019. Although several dwarf snakeheads are very close relatives, overall the group is not
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...
. For example, the dwarfs ''C. burmanica'' and ''C. stewartii'' are phylogenetically
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...
much closer to the large '' C. barca'' (up to ) than they are to the dwarfs ''C. ornatipinnis'', ''C. pulchra'' and ''C. stiktos''.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.
References
{{ReflistExternal links
Comprehensive information on snakeheads at snakeheads.org
Channidae Fish common names