Shol fish or channa striata is a cannibalistic freshwater fish. This fish found all over the south Asian countries. They are available in pond, plunge, canal, swamp, marsh, paddy field and almost all types of water. Shol fish is very strong and hardy. They also known as shoal fish, channa striata, shoul fish, snakehead fish etc. Physical characteristics, classification, food habit, diseases and breeding of this fish are described below.
Classification of Shol Fish
The scientific classification of this fish species are listed below.
- Kingdom : Animalia
- Phylum : Chordata
- Class : Actinopterygii
- Order : Perciformes
- Family : Channidae
- Genus : Channa
- Species : C. striata
- Scientific Name : Channa striata
The physical characteristics of shol fish are described below.
- The color of their body is blackish or brown.
- Body is cylindrical and long.
- There are many scales in the body of this fish.
- The front side of their head is angled like snake. As a result they are called snake head fish.
- Blackish tint available in the whole body of this fish.
- Caudal fin looks like sickle.
- There are teeth in the jaw.
- Backside is black colored and lower side is brown colored.
- Dorsal fin is long and there is a fishbone.
- Anal fin is long and there is no fishbone.
- Tail is unseparated.
- Lateral line is curved.
- Shol fish has an extra lungs.
Shol fish is mainly carnivorous but omnivorous fish. The baby fish eat zooplankton but when they become adult they eat snail, insects and small sized fish. Even, they also eat their own species. Along with this they also eat supplementary feed like fishmeal, cake, rice dust etc.
The breeding period of shol fish is rainy season. But they can also do reproduction process throughout the year. They make nest in paddy field and water reservoir full with weeds in rainy season. Female fish lays eggs there. Both male and female fish keep watching the nest until the baby fish born.
Shol fish get affected by diseases less than other fish species. Although their main diseases are epizootic ulcerative syndrome, tail and finrot disease, gill rot disease etc. This fish get affected by this types of diseases due to using excessive chemical fertilizer and pesticides in crop field. This element get mixed with water and affect the shol fish.
The amount of nutritive element in shol fish are listed below.
|Nutrition||Nutritive Element (Per 100g fish)|