"Frankenfish"

This species, the inspiration for the B movie of that name, has serious consequences beyond that of gobbling up naive locals. This species is described as a voracious predator on other fishes, but will also eat frogs, crustaceans, and even small reptiles, birds, and mammals. Moreover, its native range (Amur River basin in Russia and China) and temperature tolerance (0-30 degrees C) indicate a species that, if introduced, could establish exotic populations throughout most of the contiguous United States. It was found to be established in Maryland in 2002, perhaps also in Florida, and was the most widely available snakehead sold as a live-food fish in the U.S. Although C. argus is not well adapted to land travel, it can survive out of water up to four days breathing oxygen. The likelihood of its becoming more widely established is real.

This specimen was made available to The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin and ATOL, courtesy of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

Specimen Photos

Lateral view

This specimen was scanned by Matthew Colbert on 6 June 2005 along the coronal axis for a total of 795 slices. Each 1024x1024 pixel slice is 0.1544 mm thick, with an interslice spacing of 0.1544 mm and a field of reconstruction of 73 mm.

Links

Channa argus page from the Florida Integrated Science Center

C. argus page on Wikipedia.org

Image from front page story.