Great snakehead (Channa marulius) is a freshwater species recorded in the United States.
Scientific name: Channa marulius · Water: Freshwater
Size: up to 183 cm
The great snakehead is a benthopelagic channid of sluggish or standing water in canals, lakes and swamps, usually in waters with submerged aquatic vegetation and only in deep pools in rivers, and it enters flooded forest. It is an obligate air-breather and a carnivore that subsists on fish, frogs, snakes, insects, earthworms and tadpoles, with reports of it taking water birds and rodents; males are territorial, and it may bite when caught. Maximum length is about 183 cm total length, commonly about 46 cm. It is a commercial species, farmed commercially, a gamefish and kept in public aquariums. Fishing vulnerability is moderate to high at 55 of 100 and resilience medium. IUCN lists it as least concern.
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