Channa marulius: the bullseye snakehead
As a grad student down at the UF Tropical Aquaculture Lab, I see a lot of fish. Some are small, some large, some are aggressive, and some aren’t, but one species that never fails to entertain and engage is the bullseye snakehead Channa marulius. There are several introduced populations of this species living in the state of Florida at the moment. They are believed to have been imported from Asia for the live fish markets, and subsequently released into the environment – though whether this was intentional or accidental isn’t known.





Ah well c’est la vie, I suppose. The snakeheads themselves definitely seem pretty invested in their own lives and freedom. One jumped out of the boat and back into the canal. This was after being electrocuted and tossed into a box full of water. A box with a lid, I might add. And that snakehead wasn’t the only one to try and make a break for it.
We had just driven back up to the lab in Ruskin, bearing about over twenty live snakeheads, and ten times as many snakehead carcasses, when we had a second escape attempt. One snakehead, probably close to three feet long, turned out to be smarter than the haul box. As we were preparing his new home at the lab, he managed to knock the aerator that was oxygenating the water in the box out of its slot, jump through said slot, and onto the truck bed, at which point the aerator fell back into place.
This confused us to no end when we got back to the truck, finding an intact box with the lid still clamped in place, and one live snakehead thrashing around next to it. This was troubling, to say the least. Was Swarm of the Snakeheads right? Can they hide in our vehicles and sneak into our homes, laughing maniacally as they try to kill us all? More importantly, were our extensive biosecurity measures going to be enough to contain this ferocious beast? Well, as it turned out, yes.
