Dwarf snakehead is a term coined by aquarists to describe a group of Channa snakehead fishes growing to about 25cm (10in) maximum. They are found in freshwater habitats (often streams) in South and Southeast Asia, and southern China.[1]
Some of these are borderline dwarf snakeheads, slightly surpassing 25cm (10in) in maximum length (e.g., C. pulchra has been called a dwarf snakehead,[5] but may reach 30cm or 12in[6]). In contrast, the smallest dwarf snakehead species are less than 15cm (6in).[7]
Channa sp. "redfin", a dwarf snakehead that still is scientifically undescribed
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"),[8]C. pardalis (described 2016, previously known as C. sp. "Meghalaya leopard"),[9]C. quinquefasciata (described 2018, previously known as C. sp. "five stripe"),[10]C. torsaensis (described 2018, previously known as C. sp. "cobalt blue"),[11] and C. brunnea (described 2019, previously known as C. sp. "chocolate bleheri").[12] A few dwarf snakeheads that are known from the aquarium trade remain undescribed, including:[13][14]
Channa sp. Laos fireback.
Channa sp. mulberry or Channa sp. morus.
Besides their commonality of being of small size, dwarf snakeheads generally are paternal mouthbrooders (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).[15]
Although several dwarf snakeheads are very close relatives, overall the group is not monophyletic. For example, the dwarfs C. burmanica and C. stewartii are phylogenetically much closer to the large C. barca (up to 105cm or 3.4ft) than they are to the dwarfs C. ornatipinnis, C. pulchra and C. stiktos.[3][16]
Thakur, V. R.; Raymond, J. J. A.; Halalludin, Beni; Kiruba-Sankar, R.; Knight, J. D. M.; Praveenraj, J. (2018). Channa royi (Teleostei: Channidae): a new species of snakehead from Andaman Islands, India. Indian Journal of Fisheries 65(4).
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.
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). doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4683.4.8.
Britz, R. (2007). Channa ornatipinnis and C. pulchra, two new species of dwarf snakeheads from Myanmar (Teleostei: Channidae). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwat. 18(4): 335-344.
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.
Praveenraj, J., A. Uma, J. D. M. Knight, N. Moulitharan, S. Balasubramanian, K. Bineesh and 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.
Dey, A., Ruksa Nur, B. Raychowdhury, D. Sarkar, L.K. Singh and S. Barat (2018). A New Ornamental Species of Snakehead Fish (Teleostei: Channidae) from River Torsa of West Bengal, India. International Journal of Pure & Applied Bioscience 6(6): 497-503.
Praveenraj, J., A. Uma, N. Moulitharan and R. Kannan (2019). Channa brunnea, a new species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from West Bengal, India. Zootaxa 4624(1): 59-70.
