Parachanna africana, African snakehead : fisheries

You can sponsor this page

Parachanna africana (Steindachner, 1879)

African snakehead
Upload your photos and videos
Pictures | Google image
Image of Parachanna africana (African snakehead)
Parachanna africana
Picture by Hippocampus-Bildarchiv

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Anabantiformes (Gouramies, snakeheads) > Channidae (Snakeheads)
Etymology: Parachanna: Greek, para = the side of + Greek, channe, -es = anchovy (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Steindachner.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; benthopelagic. Tropical; 25°C - 28°C (Ref. 2060)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Africa: south Benin (lower Ouémé River) to Nigeria (lower Cross River)(Ref. 57290, 81648). Reports from Cameroon (Ref. 3575, 51193) unconfirmed and questionable (Ref. 57290, 81648). Report from Gabon dubious (Ref. 81648).

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 32.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 81648)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 45-48; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 32 - 35. Diagnosis: body elongate, tapering backwards; lateral-line scales medium-sized, numbering 73-83; head depressed anteriorly and covered with larger scales; lower jaw slightly longer than upper, with 3-4 well developed canines; dorsal and anal fins not touching caudal fin; dorsal fin with 45-48, anal with 32-35 rays; 8-11 chevron-shaped dark bars on sides (Ref. 57290, 81648). Coloration: body light to dark grey, back and top of head darker, underside lighter; dark lateral band on head, broadening between hind margin of eye and hind margin of gill cover, followed by a large, rounded, black spot; small, rounded black spot at base of caudal fin; all fins covered with small dark spots forming more or less distinct oblique bands; ground colour of juveniles ochre, and a long, black lateral band extending from tip of snout to hind margin of caudal fin (Ref. 57290, 81648).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Obligate air-breathing (Ref. 126274); Maximum SL reported is 17.2 cm (Ref. 57290).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

The eggs of this species float to the with floating plants covered surface where they are guarded by the male.

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Teugels, G.G., 2003. Channidae. p. 443-446 In C. Lévêque, D. Paugy and G.G. Teugels (eds.) Faune des poissons d'eaux douce et saumâtres de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, Tome 2. Coll. Faune et Flore tropicales 40. Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgique, Museum National d'Histoire Naturalle, Paris, France and Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Paris, France. 815 p. (Ref. 57290)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 21 April 2019

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries:
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Stocks
Ecology
Diet
Food items
Food consumption
Ration
Common names
Synonyms
Metabolism
Predators
Ecotoxicology
Reproduction
Maturity
Spawning
Spawning aggregation
Fecundity
Eggs
Egg development
Age/Size
Growth
Length-weight
Length-length
Length-frequencies
Morphometrics
Morphology
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Recruitment
Abundance
BRUVS
References
Aquaculture
Aquaculture profile
Strains
Genetics
Electrophoreses
Heritability
Diseases
Processing
Nutrients
Mass conversion
Collaborators
Pictures
Stamps, Coins Misc.
Sounds
Ciguatera
Speed
Swim. type
Gill area
Otoliths
Brains
Vision

Tools

Special reports

Download XML

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.6250   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00724 (0.00396 - 0.01326), b=3.01 (2.85 - 3.17), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & (Sub)family-body (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.8   ±0.6 se; based on size and trophs of closest relatives
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (22 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Unknown.
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 121 [59, 236] mg/100g; Iron = 1.02 [0.49, 1.92] mg/100g; Protein = 18.2 [16.5, 20.1] %; Omega3 = 0.271 [0.107, 0.695] g/100g; Selenium = 54.8 [19.9, 144.0] μg/100g; VitaminA = 68.4 [20.2, 219.4] μg/100g; Zinc = 1.52 [1.01, 2.32] mg/100g (wet weight);