Channa barca (Hamilton, 1822)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The Barca snakehead (Channa barca) is a rare species of snakehead. It is endemic to the upper Brahmaputra River basin in northeastern India and Bangladesh. Records from Nepal are of doubtful validity. Overall it has been assessed as data deficient by the IUCN, and in 2014 it was assessed as critically endangered in Bangladesh by the IUCN. In Assam, it is locally known as cheng garaka or garaka cheng.
This is a relatively large snakehead, reaching a total length of up to 105 cm (3.4 ft). The species is regarded as an excellent food fish, and it is also highly desired by aquarists, but its rarity, behavior and large size makes it unsuitable for most aquariums.
Wikipedia contributors, Barca snakehead; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T19:17:00.420621+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Channa barca (Hamilton, 1822)
- Name authority
- (Hamilton, 1822)
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Anabantiformes
- Family
- Channidae
- Genus
- Channa
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderAnabantiformes
- suborderChannoidei
- familyChannidae Fowler, 1934
- genusChanna Scopoli, 1777
- speciesChanna barca (Hamilton, 1822)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Channa. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Channa hoaluensis Nguyen, 2011 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa bipuli Praveenraj, Uma, Moulitharan & Bleher, 2018 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa brahmacharyi Chakraborty, Yardi & Mukherjee, 2020 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa lipor Praveenraj, Uma, Moulitharan & Singh, 2019 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa quinquefasciata Praveenraj, Uma, Knight, Moulitharan, Balasubramanian, Bineesh & Bleher, 2018 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa rara Britz, Dahanukar, Anoop & Ali, 2019 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa stiktos Lalramliana, Knight, Lalhlimpuia & Singh, 2018 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa brunnea Praveenraj, Uma, Moulitharan & Kannan, 2019 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa aristonei Praveenraj, Thackeray, Singh, Uma, Moulitharan & Mukhim, 2020 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa amphibeus (McClelland, 1845) | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Channa andrao Britz, 2013 | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| snakeheadChanna argus (Cantor, 1842) | ChannidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Ophicephalus nigricans Cuvier, 1831 Cuvier, 1831 | synonym |
| Ophiocephalus barca Hamilton, 1822 Hamilton, 1822 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1026847 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:5Y29Q. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.