Habitat use, migration pattern and population dynamics of chevron snakehead Channa striata in a rainfed rice farming landscape

Abstract

Habitat use, migration, mortality and growth of the chevron snakehead Channa striata in a rainfed rice farming landscape of north-east Thailand were studied through a tagging experiment. A total of 751 fish were captured, tagged and released during three distinct events in the late dry season, and in the beginning and at the end of the wet season. Rice fields provided the major wet season habitat for C. striata. Small trap ponds built to provide dry season habitat on farms provided 20% of catches and, if not harvested, could increase recruitment to the spawning stock by >30% despite accounting for <1% of dry season habitat by area. Migrations were localized (mostly <500 m). Up-migration from perennial to seasonal water bodies at the beginning of the wet season involved longer distances and took place over a longer time than down-migration at the end of the wet season. Natural mortality rates were extremely high, particularly during the period of down-migration. Fishing mortality rates were high in absolute terms, but contributed only 6-36% to the total mortality. Growth was seasonal with a maximum towards the end of the wet season. Snakeheads have successfully colonized the rainfed rice farming landscape, where populations can withstand intensive exploitation and respond well to aquatic habitat management on farmland. # 2005 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Phylogeographic Pattern of the Striped Snakehead, Channa striata in Sundaland: Ancient River Connectivity, Geographical and Anthropogenic Singnatures

“…High genetic structuring particularly of non-migratory freshwater fishes have been well documented [4], [68], [69]. This is due to restrictive physical barriers separating populations between pairs of adjacent populations, though C. striata is well-known to be capable of short distance migration over land [10]. Therefore, when this occurs adjoining populations may effectively become panmictic, sharing or exchanging alleles as observed in this study among populations within regions.…”

“…The ability of C. striata to colonize natural and artificial reservoirs [10] correlated with its extensive distribution across wide range of natural environmental conditions, suggests that the genetic variation in the wild population could be high. However, how this variation may be geographically distributed, is currently unknown.…”

Biological Aspects of Channa limbata (Cuvier, 1831) in Ta Bo - Huai Yai Wildlife Sanctuary, Phetchabun Province, Thailand

“…The largest ever recorded snakehead was almost six feet long. C. limbata is the smallest species in the Channidae family and ranges from the south of China to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and Indonesia (Amilhat & Lorenzen 2005;Song et al 2013;Ward-Campbell & Beamish 2005;Wijeyaratne 1994). Adult C. limbata are only 15 to 20 cm in length.…”

Insights into historical drainage evolution based on the phylogeography of the chevron snakehead fish (Channa striata) in the Mekong Basin

“…Significant structure was not unexpected for C. striata, given this species' general ecological characteristics, that is, sedentary habitat generalists with high levels of parental care (Lee & Ng, 1994;Amilhat & Lorenzen, 2005). The analysis of variation at mtDNA and microsatellite loci shows that while C. striata in the MRB and CPB are genetically diverse, populations are strongly structured both within and between drainage basins across the Indochinese peninsula.…”