''Luciocephalus pulcher'', the pikehead, giant pikehead or crocodile pikehead, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

gourami Gouramis, or gouramies , are a group of freshwater anabantiform fishes that comprise the family Osphronemidae. The fish are native to Asia—from the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia and northeasterly towards Korea. The name "gourami", of ...

native to the

Malaya Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...

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

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 ...

. It is a yellowish-brown fish with dark brown longitudinal bands and stripes, and can reach a length of SL. It can also be found in the

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

trade, where it is notoriously difficult to keep; they require extremely soft, acidic water and seldom eat dead foods.

Habitat

It can be found in a variety of habitats like flooded forests, streams, and peat swamps, especially in areas with plentiful vegetation.

Behavior

Compared to most gouramies, it is a highly specialized ambush predator that spends most of its time lying motionless near plants or other cover for potential prey to approach; when it does attack a potential meal (usually a smaller fish), it is able to extend its jaw to about one-third of its body length, allowing it to successfully prey upon fishes almost half of its own length. Like several closely related genera (such as

Sphaerichthys ''Sphaerichthys'' is a genus of gouramies native to Southeast Asia known as chocolate gourami. Species There are currently four recognized species in this genus: * '' Sphaerichthys acrostoma'' Vierke, 1979 (Giant chocolate gourami) * '' Sphaeri ...

), it is 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 ...

(in this case a paternal mouthbrooder).

References

pulcher Pulcher is Latin for "beautiful", and may refer to: * Claudius Pulcher (disambiguation), Romans * Publius Clodius Pulcher, Roman politician and street agitator * ''Pelvicachromis pulcher ''Pelvicachromis pulcher'' is a Fresh water, freshwater ...

Fish of Southeast Asia Fish described in 1830 Taxa named by John Edward Gray {{anabantiformes-stub