Notes on Some Snakehead Fishes of India with an Aid to their Identification

The identity of snakehead fishes (Perciformes: Channidae) in India, particularly species belonging to Channa gachua complex remains to be confusing due to clubbing of a number of species under the synonymy of Channa orientalis Bloch and Schneider by several authors including Talwar and Jhingran (1991), Jayaram (1999) and Menon (1999) as well. Courtenay and Williams (2004) considered most of these synonyms are incorrect and records of C. orientalis from southern parts of India and elsewhere except for Sri Lanka are erroneous.