''Channa marulius'' (bullseye snakehead or great snakehead) is a large species of snakehead native to

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

. Populations in Southeast Asia are now regarded as separate species.Adamson, E. A. S. and R. Britz (2018). The snakehead fish Channa aurolineata is a valid species (Teleostei: Channidae) distinct from Channa marulius. Zootaxa 4514 (4): 542-552.Adamson, E.A.S., R. Britz and S. Lieng (2019). Channa auroflammea, a new species of snakehead fish of the Marulius group from the Mekong River in Laos and Cambodia (Teleostei: Channidae). Zootaxa 4571(3): 398-408.

Taxonomy

''C. marulius''—as traditionally defined—is a

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. A study published in 2017 showed that '' C. pseudomarulius'', formerly regarded as a synonym of ''C. marulius'', is a valid species from the southern Western Ghats. A genetic study published the same year showed that ''C. marulius'' consisted of three clearly separated lineages (not counting the already separated ''C. pseudomarulius''). One of these is '' C. aurolineata'', revalidated in 2018 for the populations in drainages in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, and non-natively in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

(separated from the more western ''C. marulius'' by the Indo-Burman Ranges), and the other was described as a new species, '' C. auroflammea'', from the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annual ...

basin in 2019.In India it is a widespread native fish. In South India, it is commonly found in reservoirs, in Pechipparai, Chittar, Manimuthar, Bhvani, and Mettur dams of Tamil Nadu, and Thenmalai, Neyyar, and Idukki dams of Kerala. It can also be found in the reservoirs of Himachal Pradesh, such as the Pong Dam (Maharana Pratap Sagar), where it is known locally as ''soal''. ''C. marulius'' is commonly known as giant murrel. In Assam, it is locally known as'' xal'' ( Assamese: শাল). In Andhra and Telangana, it is called ''korrameenu'', and is quite common in lakes and reservoirs. In Sindh, the larger one is referred to as Shakur (Sindhi: شاڪُرُ) and the smaller one as Mukur (Sindhi: مُڪُرُ).

Culinary

Great snakehead is a fast-growing fish specie when compared to most of the others of the genus, and they are also suitable for intensive culture due to their air-breathing habit. They are being sold live and fetch high prices in the market, due to their excellent-tasting flesh and lack of fine bones.

References

External links

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Channa marulius
- USGS {{Taxonbar, from=Q620617 marulius Fish described in 1822 Taxa named by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton