Channa is a genus of the Channidae

Channidae

The Snakeheads are members of the freshwater perciform fish family Channidae, native to Africa and Asia. These elongated predatory fish are distinguished by a long dorsal fin, large mouth and shiny teeth. They breathe air with a suprabranchial organ, a primitive form of a labyrinth organ...

 family of snakehead fishes. This genus contains about 29 species, but the most well known are probably northern snakehead

Northern snakehead

The Northern snakehead is a type of snakehead fish native to China, Russia, North Korea and South Korea. In the United States, the fish is considered to be a highly invasive species...

 (Channa argus) and the giant snakehead

Giant snakehead

The giant snakehead or giant mudfish is the largest in the family Channidae, capable of growing to over 1 meter in length and a weight of over 20 kilograms . It is widely distributed in the freshwater of South East Asia and some regions of India...

 (Channa micropeltes). Channa has a wide natural distribution extending from Iran in the West, to China in the East, and parts of Siberia in the Far East. They are one of the most common staple food fish in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and other South East Asian countries where they are extensively cultured. Apart from their importance as a food fish, snakeheads are also consumed as a therapeutic for wound healing as well as reducing post-operative pain and discomfort, and collected for the international aquarium pet trade. The diets of various species of Channa include fish, frogs, snakes, rodents, birds, and insects. Some can move on land like snakes, and breathe air.

The taxonomy of the genus Channa is incomplete and a comprehensive revision of the family has not been performed. A phylogenetic study in 2010 [1] has also indicated the likelihood of the existence of more undescribed species of channids in South East Asia, In June 2011 the Malabar snakehead Channa diplogramma from the Peninsular India has been 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, the study also suggested that the species shared a most recent common ancestor with C. micropeltes, around 9.52 to 21.76 MYA [2]. The most plausible scenario for the evolution of channids would be a vicariant divergence after the Gondwanaland split-up, of the genus Parachanna (the second genus of Channidae, endemic to Africa) into Africa and the genus Channa into Eurasia [2,3].

In Assamese

Assamese language

Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...

 it is called Goroi. In Malayalam it is called Varal.

Species

-  Channa amphibeus

Channa amphibeus

The Borna snakehead, or Chel snakehead, Channa amphibeus, is an extremely rare species of snakehead. C. amphibeus is native only to the Chel River , of the Bhutan foothills, in northern Bengal, India....

- Borna snakehead

-  Channa argus - Northern snakehead

-  Channa asiatica

Channa asiatica

Channa asiatica, is a species of snakehead. It is one of four species of the genus Channa native to China. It also can be found in Taiwan and southern Japan, to which it migrated...

-  Channa aurantimaculata

Channa aurantimaculata

Channa aurantimaculata is a species of snakehead. Its body is of brownish colour intermixed with vertical orange stripes. Its type locality is Dibrugarh, the most north-eastern area of Assam, India. Dibrughar is the same type locality as that of Channa bleheriThis species grows to 16 inches...

-  Channa bankanensis

-  Channa barca

Channa barca

The Barca snakehead, Channa barca, is a species of snakehead. It is extremely rare. Its type location is Goalpara, a small city on the southern banks of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India. According to , outside India there are only three living specimen kept in aquaria....

- Barca snakehead

-  Channa bleheri

Channa bleheri

The Rainbow snakehead, Channa bleheri, is a species of snakehead. Its type location is Dibrugarh, the most north-eastern area of Assam, India. It is known in Assamese as Sengeli....

- Rainbow snakehead

-  Channa cyanospilos

-  Channa gachua

Channa gachua

Channa gachua is a species of snakehead. It is a species of dwarf snakehead and has a length of . It gave its name to the aquarists' term dwarf snakeheads to denote the smaller Channa species*Channa bleheri*Channa burmanica...

- Dwarf snakehead

-  Channa harcourtbutleri

Channa harcourtbutleri

Channa harcourtbutleri is a species of snakehead endemic to Inle Lake and surroundings in Myanmar. Locally called nga ohn-ma, among aquarists it is known as one of the "dwarf snakeheads", but no significant import for aquarists is known. It is one of the smallest species of snakehead and has a...

-  Channa lucius

Channa lucius

The forest snakehead, Channa lucius, is a species of snakehead, a fish of the Channidae family. It lives in forest streams and can reach 40 cm in length. Its range includes most of South-east Asia and parts of southern China...

-  Channa maculata

Channa maculata

Channa maculata, the blotched snakehead, is a species of snakehead. It is native to southern China and northern Vietnam, but has been widely introduced to other countries, where it is an invasive species. Adults typically grow to a length of , but a maximum of has been recorded....

-  Channa marulioides

-  Channa marulius

Channa marulius

The bullseye snakehead or great snakehead is native to South Asia but has been introduced to the United States. In South India it is commonly found in reservoirs. It is found in Pechpparai, Chittar, Manimuthar, Bhvani and Mettur dams of Tamil Nadu Thenmalai, Neyyar and Idukki dams of kerala. C....

- Great snakehead

-  Channa melanopterus

-  Channa melasoma

Channa melasoma

Channa melasoma or Black snakehead is a fish in genus Channa found in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore....

- Black snakehead

-  Channa micropeltes - Giant snakehead, red snakehead

-  Channa diplogramma

Channa diplogramma

The Malabar snakehead [C. diplogramma], is one of the most enigmatic and least known of all channids. Sir Francis Day [1] described Ophiocephalus diplogramma in 1865 based on one juvenile specimen collected near the mouth of the Cochin River in the port city of Cochin , and called it Malabar...

- Malabar snakehead

-  Channa nox

-  Channa orientalis

Channa orientalis

Channa orientalis is a dwarf snakehead species. It is commonly called ceylon snakehead. They are freshwater fish that grow to a maximum size of 10 cm/4 inches. They originate from southwest of the island of Sri Lanka. They are predatory fish that feed on plankton, insects and sometimes small...

- smooth-breasted snakehead

-  Channa panaw

-  Channa pleurophthalma

-  Channa pulchra

-  Channa punctatus - Spotted snake head, green snake head

-  Channa stewartii

-  Channa striata

Channa striata

The snakehead murrel, Channa striata, is a species of snakehead fish. It is also known as the common snakehead, chevron snakehead, striped snakehead, haloan, aruan, haruan and dalag...

- Snakehead murrel, chevron snakehead, striped snakehead