The Barca snakehead (''Channa barca'') is a rare species of snakehead. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the upper Brahmaputra river basin in northeastern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Records from

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

are of doubtful validity. Overall it has been assessed as data deficient by the IUCN, and in 2014 it was assessed as critically endangered in Bangladesh by the IUCN. In Assam, it is locally known as ''cheng garaka'' or ''garaka cheng''. This is a relatively large snakehead, reaching a

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of up to . The species is regarded as an excellent

food fish Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ing ...

, and it is also highly desired by aquarists, but its rarity, behavior and large size makes it unsuitable for most aquariums.SeriouslyFish
Channa barca
Retrieved 14 February 2019.

Distribution, habitat and behavior

The barca snakehead is only known from the upper Brahmaputra river basin the

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

and

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

in India, and Sylhet in Bangladesh. Records from

are of doubtful validity. It mostly inhabits wetlands, often near the margins, but can also be seen in riverine habitats.Choudhury, M., and S.P. Biswas (2003). Maturity and spawning habit of an ornamental snakehead fish Channa barca (Hamilton). J. Ecophysiol. Occup. Hlth. 3: 149-152.Goswami, M.M., B. Arunav, and P. Janardan (2006). Comparative biometry, habitat structure and distribution of endemic snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) species of Assam, India. Journal of the Inland Fisheries Society of India 38(1): 1-8. It is able to withstand large variations in water temperature and oxygen levels as its habitat experiences large seasonal changes in flood levels. It often inhabits a vertical tunnel that typically is around long and goes down to the

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

. The tunnel ends in a chamber where the fish may spend the dry season when the wetlands above it disappear. Some other snakeheads that inhabit the same general region as the barca snakehead have also been reported to "

hibernate Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It most ...

" during the dry season, including the closely related

orange-spotted snakehead The orange-spotted snakehead (''Channa aurantimaculata'') is a species of snakehead fish. Its body is of brownish colour intermixed with vertical orange stripes. Males have taller dorsal fins with more intense coloration, and narrower heads. It ...

(''C. aurantimaculata'').Gogoi, N., L.P. Hazarika and S.P. Biswas (2016). Studies on the reproductive biology and captive breeding of an endemic fish from Assam Channa aurantimaculata. Journal of Environmental Biology 37: 369-374. The overall conservation status of the barca snakehead is poorly known, but it appears to generally be a scarce or rare species. The species is highly carnivorous, feeding mostly on fish. Little is known about the breeding behavior, but like its nearest relatives it is likely a

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 ...

. Maturity may occur when only long, but most individuals are around two or three times that size before they reach it. The breeding season is prolonged and begins when the beels they inhabit are flooded by pre-

monsoonal A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscill ...

rain in April–May. The species has a low

fecundity Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the natural capability to pr ...

and both parents take care of the young.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q150496 Barca snakehead Goalpara Fish described in 1822