Channa montana (McClelland, 1842)

Freyhof, JÖrg, Yoğurtçuoğlu, Baran, Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash & Kaya, Cüneyt, 2025, Handbook of Freshwater Fishes of West Asia, De Gruyter : 814-815

Channa montana

Common name. Baluchi snakehead.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from other freshwater fishes in West Asia by: ○ paired accessory organs or suprabranchial organs in upper gill chamber / ○ 33–35½ soft dorsal rays / ○ 20–22½ anal rays / ○ body roundish and elongate / ○ 41–44 lateral-line scales / ○ many teeth on jaws, vomer and palatines / ○ pelvic origin shortly behind pectoral base and below dorsal origin. Size up to 125 mm SL, likely to grow larger.

Distribution. Iran: Jazmurian (Bampur and Halil) and Mashkid (Rotak) basins shared by Iran and Pakistan. Also in rivers of Makran coast. Indus drainage in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, as well as rivers of western India,

Open Access. © 2025 JÖrg Freyhof, Baran Yoğurtçuoğlu, Arash Jouladeh-Roudbar and Cüneyt Kaya, published by De Gruyter. the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111677811-044

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Habitat. A wide range of freshwater habitats often associated with dense submerged vegetation and standing water such as qanats, springs, and streams. Occasionally found in rocky streams without vegetation.

Biology. Forms pairs and guard larvae and small fry. Feeds free-swimming juveniles with eggs by spawning into cloud of juveniles. Single study of species’ reproduction suggests that eggs are laid on bottom. Breathes air from surface. Feeds on invertebrates and small fish.

Conservation status. Not evaluated. Declining in Iran due to desiccation of habitats.

Streams like this in Iranian Makran are the habitat of Channa montana .

Remarks. In West Asia, snakeheads are restricted to Iran, usually identified as Channa gachua , a species described from Bengal in India. Recent molecular studies suggest that more than 20 species may be included in C. gachua . The Baluchi snakehead is very closely related to populations from the Indus and westernmost India. It is identified here as C. montana , a species described from the upper Indus drainage in Afghanistan.

Further reading. Coad 2016a (distribution, biology); Conte-Grand et al. 2017 (diversity of C. gachua ).