Channa striata-The Haruan The lure of the Snakehead

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Phylum: Class: Order: Family: Genus: Species:

Animalia Chordata Actinopterygii Perciformes Channidae Channa C. striata

THE search for giant haruan has taken many of my fisho friends to wild ponds in the interior or secluded places around the country but nothing could match the size of the fish caught recently on a trip to the southern part of peninsular Malaysia. In the outing to Malacca and Johor, both my buddies James Fam and Ah Hock landed rare, extraordinarily-sized haruan which are difficult to find these days. They caught a 4kg and 3.8kg specimen, respectively, which was a record of sorts for them.

They too were surprised by the extra large catch, thinking at first that they had hooked a toman instead of the haruan or snakehead. Like the toman, the giant haruan can also give an extraordinary fight to anglers.

Big one: Ah Hock and his 3.8kg haruan.

The fish, which had given a ferocious hit on the plastic frogs used as lures by James and Ah Hock, had still not been landed after some 15 minutes as it put up a good fight after the initial strike. The fish managed to put in a run that almost emptied their spools, followed by a furious tug of war. It was a hard-fought battle and the brute force from the fish really tested the medium-heavy rods used by the two anglers. At one point, the rods took a severe beating, curving to a semi U-shape, as the fish refused to give up but fought back with brute strength as it struggled to free itself. While haruan is still a common local fresh water species found in many places around the country, especially in lakes, paddy fields, irrigation canals and old mining ponds, catching anything above 1.5 to 2kg is rare these days. There are many haruan hunters amidst the anglers and when news of such a find gets to them, you can bet to your last dollar that they would invade the site sooner or later. So what is so good about haruan fishing that makes fishos hunt for this fish?

Hooked: James managed to bag a 4kg haruan.

Aside from the adrenaline rush of fighting the fish, perhaps it is its medicinal value. According to the old wives tales, the fish is believed to be an effective remedy for quite a few ailments. The Chinese believe that juvenile haruan, cooked in some herbs, is good for post-operative recovery. Apparently, although it has not been proven scientifically, the soup and the meat from the fish boiled in this special preparation would heal the wound quicker. Taking haruan, according to some, would also prevent scarring and this is, apparently, highly-recommended for children. I believe that the many tales of the haruan has encouraged fishos to hunt for the fish. As the result, the many haruan found in the wild have been constantly caught, leaving very little opportunity for them to grow bigger. Aside from its medicinal value, the sheer brute force in the haruans fight, the ability to spot or stalk the species in a pond covered with snags or weeds and tall grasses, makes the hunt interesting as it gives anglers an adrenaline rush.

Low-cost: Plastic frog lures used to catch haruan these days.

But, unlike those days, where one would use live frogs to lure the haruan from their hideout, spinner bait like bushwacker and artificial soft plastic frogs are popular among anglers now. They are not only easy to use, effective and longlasting, but cheaper in terms of costing. I was a bit apprehensive of the effectiveness of artificial lure and prefer the real thing but after several successful outings using soft plastics, I now have them in my tackle box. But despite these changes in catching the haruan, the fishing techniques remain the same. One would still have to wait for a few seconds to allow the haruan to hold on to the bait in its mouth before taking the strike. As for the rod, a long and stiff stick is still the best. As for me, I prefer a sevenfooter fitted to a small reel, the 2000 series, with breaded line to do the job. Aside from a good and strong rod, one also needs to be extra sensitive to the surroundings when catching Haruan in the wild. An angler not only must have a sharp eye to spot the Haruan movements among the weeds and tall grasses along the bank as it surfaces for a breather but also a good listening ear and ability to differentiate the splashing sound of the fish as it navigates and lurks for its prey in the wild. One also needs to be skillful in casting, to be able not only to draw quickly but flip the bait accurately or as close to where the haruan had been spotted to taunt it to take the bait.

Haruan fishing has always been fascinating. However, the challenge now for me is to be able to catch an even bigger Haruan that James and Ah Hock. To do this, we are now planning to venture further into the interior, to explore and find untouched wild ponds to try out our luck. Happy fishing!

THE CROSS STRIPED SNAKEHEAD CHANNA STRIATA (BLOCH, 1793)

Jrg Vierke
Striated snakeheads in South and Southeast Asia, the most common snake heads, they are called "Common Snakehead" called. Although they live in rivers and canals, but more often in ponds, ponds, swamps, marshes, and even in rice fields and in brackish water. Even in the mountains you meet Striated snake heads on. There they achieve lower sizes. Locations are in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Peninsular India, southern China, Burma, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, the islands of Indonesia, including Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas and Timor. They are also naturalized in the Philippines and Hawaii. Striated according to the snakeheads are large circulation area stained highly variable. Unlike some other snake heads, the color barely changed depending on the particular mood of the animal. Adult animals usually have 6 to 15 dark transverse stripes on the side, showing the Vshaped forward. The top can be greenish, gray or brown, the sides are white, gray or yellowish. Deraniyagala (1952) describes the youth coloring cross Striped snakehead fish from Sri Lanka: Up to a size of 15 mm, they are bright colored orange, then they turn first mainly to back and bottom inconspicuous, so that at 25 mm large animals of the orange color only an indistinct longitudinal stripes remained.The dark horizontal stripes appear only at about 40 mm long animals. With them also an eye-speck-like structure forms at the back edge of the Rkkenflosse. With age, the stain disappears. Young Channa striata, which I had brought from Thailand (surrounding area of Bangkok), stained exactly as described above animals from Sri Lanka. The robust animals are neither the water nor on the type of food specific claims. However, they are very voracious and fast-growing, also quite aggressive.In the long run you will not be able to keep more than one animal in just mid-sized pool. Ch striata also has been repeatedly bred in captivity. But to do this big tank is recommended. The animals should be scheduled at least 20 inches tall. Detailed reports on the breeding behavior in open water there is of Sri Lanka ( WILLEY ) and the Philippines (HERRE): choose a quiet, lush place, the adult birds and bite them off all water plants. After laying eggs, the eggs float in a thin film under the water surface and sharp guarded by the male. The amber-colored, sometimes bright yellow spawn grains have a diameter of 1.2 to 1.5 mm. Hatching occurs depending on the temperature after 1 to 3 days. The larvae are then 3.5 mm long. After 4 days they have already reached 6.75 mm and 20 mm total length in the ninth

week. Usually both parents seek the young fish that stay together in a dense swarm and old at the same time come up for air at the water surface. From a size of 5 to 6 cm of the swarm cohesion of the boys began to dissolve. This paragraph is originally published in: Jrg Vierke - band of robbers in the aquarium, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-440-06583-9. The use of synthesis data is acknowledged by the author. We want to Encourage the reader to buy this book, it contains some wonderful photos channa End of month we do not have the publishing permission.

CROSS STRIPED SNAKEHEAD

Rdiger Riehl Hans A. Baensch - mergus@t-online.de
Channa striata Bloch 1793

Synonyms
Ophiocephalus striatus , Ophicephalus striatus , Ophicephalus vagus .

Occurrence
Sri Lanka, India, China, Thailand, the Philippines to the Moluccas. Naturalized in Hawaii.

First import
Questionable.

Gender differences
Not known.

Social behavior
Robber, who is soon alone inhabit the basin, as all other residents have become his prey.

Keeping conditions
Good planted aquariums with soft ground. For large animals sufficiently strong filtering because of the high attack of metabolic products. pH 7-8; hardness to 20 GCH

Cultivation
In nature: the parents bites on Laichort off all plants. Male guards the eggs floating on the water surface and later for 4 - 6 weeks the pups. However, these can also be prey to the adult animals. The eggs hatch after 1-3 days. After 9 weeks, the juveniles already reached 17-20 mm in length (after Smith).

Feeding plan
Live food of all kinds

Features
Important food fish in Southeast Asia, but no aquarium fish. Young animals are very tame and curious, during the breeding season, the females may not have been caught because they do not bite! The species can survive for months in self gebuddeIten sump holes, as long as the skin remains moist - even if the water is almost dried up. Is this the explanation for the wide distribution of this species? Temperature: 23-27 C Length: . 90cm bowl length: . 120 cm water region: lower, middle of difficulty: 4 (for food) .

Acknowledgement and source (s)

What this text originally published in: Aquarium Atlas Volume 1 page 830 The publishers have snakeheads.org granted the right to display it on the org's site. The copyright of the text is silent with the authors in full amount.

Common names of
n = 127 See Market names

Channa striata
Type
FAO Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular

Common Name

Used in
Global India India Philippines Indonesia Indonesia Bangladesh India Philippines

Language
Arabic Assamese Assamese Banton Batak Toba Batak Toba Bengali Bengali Bikol

Official Trade Name

No No No No No No No No No

Haal Shawl Obog Bado Haruting Shol Taki Bulig

Common Name
Haroan Sulbud Talosog Terebog Torab Utan Bale salo Nga-yan Nga-yau-auk Stribet slangehovedfisk Banded snakehead Chevron snakehead Chevron snakehead Chevron snakehead Mudfish Murrel Murrel Murrel Pongee Snakehead mudfish Snakehead murrel Striped snakehead Striped snakehead Striped snakehead Striped snakehead Stripped snakehead Raitakrmeenp Tte de serpent stri Quergestreifter Schlangenkopf I'a pk Morl Morrul

Used in
Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Indonesia Myanmar Myanmar Denmark India USA Hawaii Global Philippines Sri Lanka Fiji Philippines Hawaii Philippines Global Australia India USA Global Bangladesh Finland Global Germany Hawaii India India

Language
Bikol Bikol Bikol Bikol Bikol Bikol Bugis Burmese Burmese Danish English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English Finnish French German Hawaiian Hindi Hindi

Type
Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular AFS Vernacular FAO old Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular FAO old Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular FAO Vernacular Vernacular FAO Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular

Official Trade Name

No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No

Common Name
Soura Gabus Dalag Bayong Deluk Gapuran Kapuran Kutuk Koochinamari Kuchheu Kuchhu Pooli-kuchi Bundaki Dolla Phtok Ptuok Ros Trey phtuok Trey ras Trey raws Trey ros (or ras) Lawag Pa kaw Pa kho Pba kaw Aruan Delak Gabus Haruan Haruan Ruan Telak Toman Toman paya

Used in
India Indonesia Philippines Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia India India India India Philippines India Cambodia Cambodia Cambodia Cambodia Cambodia Cambodia Cambodia Philippines Laos Laos Laos Malaysia Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia Malaysia Malaysia Indonesia Malaysia Malaysia India India India India

Language
Hindi Iban Ilokano Javanese Javanese Javanese Javanese Javanese Kannada Kannada Kannada Kannada Kapampangan Kashmiri Khmer Khmer Khmer Khmer Khmer Khmer Khmer Kuyunon Laotian Laotian Laotian Malay Malay Malay Malay Malay Malay Malay Malay Malay Malayalam Malayalam Malayalam Malayalam

Type
Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular

Official Trade Name

No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No

Chotiyan Kaunan Varal

Common Name
Aluan Amanu Dalag Dalak Dekhu Dok Mangsha Sohr

Used in
China China Global Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines India India India India India Nepal Nepal India Philippines Poland India India India Sri Lanka Global Sweden Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines India India India India

Language
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin Chinese Mandarin Chinese

Type
Vernacular Vernacular FAO

Official Trade Name

No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No

Maranao/Samal/Tao Vernacular Sug Maranao/Samal/Tao Vernacular Sug Maranao/Samal/Tao Vernacular Sug Maranao/Samal/Tao Vernacular Sug Marathi Marathi Marathi Marathi Nepali Nepali Nepali Oriya Pangasinan Polish Punjabi Punjabi Punjabi Sinhalese Spanish Swedish Tagalog Tagalog Tagalog Tagalog Tagalog Tagalog Tamil Tamil Tamil Tamil Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular FAO Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular

Helae Saura Sola Guelue-guelue mijogw prgowany Carrodh Dhoali Sowl Loolla Cabeza de serpiente cabro Randig Ormhuvudfisk Anak dalag Bakuli Bulig Bundaki Bundalag Dalag

Karuppu veral Viral wrahl

Common Name
Vraal Korra matta Korramenu Sowrah

Used in
India India India India Thailand Thailand Viet Nam Viet Nam Viet Nam Viet Nam Viet Nam Philippines Philippines Philippines

Language
Tamil Telugu Telugu Telugu Thai Thai Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Visayan Visayan Visayan

Type
Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular Vernacular

Official Trade Name

No No No No No No No No No No No No No No

Pla chon C L, c Sp C lc C lt (lc) C qu C tru Aluan Haluan Haruan

Market names of
Common Name
Snakehead Striped snake head murrel

Channa striata
Type
Market Market

Used in
Thailand Myanmar

Language
English English

Official Trade Name

No No