Channa harcourtbutleri

Channa harcourtbutleri
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Superclass:	Osteichthyes
Class:	Actinopterygii
Subclass:	Neopterygii
Infraclass:	Teleostei
Superorder:	Acanthopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Channidae
Genus:	Channa
Species:	C. harcourtbutleri
Binomial name
Channa harcourtbutleri (Annandale, 1918)
Synonyms
Ophiocephalus harcourt-butleri Annandale, 1918 Channa harbourtbutleri (lapsus)

Channa harcourtbutleri is a species of snakehead endemic to Inle Lake and surroundings in Myanmar. Locally called nga ohn-ma, among aquarists it is known as one of the "dwarf snakeheads", but no significant import for aquarists is known. It is one of the smallest species of snakehead and has a length of 20 cm. The specific name honors Sir Harcourt Butler, a British governor in the region.

This was for a long time considered to be a junior synonym of Channa gachua. In fact, both species closely resemble each other. The article on its revalidation only mentions three discriminating features, such as the missing ocellus in the dorsal fin of a juvenile Channa harcourtbutleri. It is suspected to be a mouthbrooder and eats a wide range of foods, including arthropods and small fish, but unlike in some relatives, no frogs.

References

• Annandale, Nelson Theodore (1918): Fish and fisheries of the Inle Lake. Records of the Indian Museum 14(1): 33-64. HTML fulltext
• Ng, H.H.; Ng, Peter K.L. & Britz, Ralf (1999): Channa harcourtbutleri (Annandale, 1918): a valid species of snakehead (Perciformes: Channidae) from Myanmar. Journal of South Asian Natural History 4: 57-63. HTML fulltext
• Roberts, Tyson R. (2007): The "Celestial pearl danio", a new genus and species of colourful minute cyprinid fish from Myanmar (Pisces: Cypriniformes). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 55(1): 131-140. PDF fulltext

External links

• Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2005). "Channa harcourtbutleri" in FishBase. November 2005 version.
• snakeheads.org