''Channa pleurophthalma'', the ocellated snakehead is a species of Southeast Asian freshwater fish in the snakehead family.

Description

''Channa pleurophthalma'' can reach a length of about . The body is cylindrical, laterally flattened and has an iridescent greenish or bluish basic color, with two or three big black patches, which are outlined in orange and an additional ocellus on both the

opercle The operculum is a series of bones found in bony fish and chimaeras that serves as a facial support structure and a protective covering for the gills; it is also used for respiration and feeding. Anatomy The opercular series contains four bon ...

and tail fin. The belly is usually yellowish. The long

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

has 40-43 fin rays, while the soft

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

has 28-31 rays. This species is caught for human consumption and for the aquarium trade.

Distribution and habitat

This species is present in Indonesia in

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. These fish prefer areas with

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

and clear waters.

Species description and etymology

''Channa pleurophthalma'' was formally described in 1851 by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Pieter Bleeker Pieter Bleeker (10 July 1819 – 24 January 1878) was a Dutch medical doctor, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He was famous for the ''Atlas Ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Néêrlandaises'', his monumental work on the fishes of East Asia ...

as ''Ophiocephalus pleurophthalmus'' with the type locality given as Bandjarmasin on Borneo. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

is a compound of ''pleuro-'' meaning "side" and ''ophthalma'' meaning "eyed" a reference to the 2-3 eyespots or ocelli on its flanks and the single eye spots on the gill cover and on its

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

References

Bibliography

* Nora Brede, Pascal Antler: ''Art für Art: Schlangenkopffische: Amazonas / Die Gattungen Channa und Parachanna.'' Natur und Tier-Verlag (2009), * Günther Sterba: ''Süsswasserfische der Welt''. Urania-Verlag, 1990, * Walter R. Courtenay & James D. Williams: ''Snakeheads (Pisces, Channidae) − A Biological Synopsis and Risk Assessment.'' U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1251, 200
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pleurophthalma Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker Fish described in 1851 {{Anabantiformes-stub