Pike heads

Pike heads
	Pike head ( Luciocephalus pulcher )
Systematics
	Perch relatives (Percomorphaceae)
Order :	Climbing fish species (Anabantiformes)
Subordination :	Labyrinth fish (Anabantoidei)
Family :	Osphronemidae
Subfamily :	Luciocephalinae
Genre :	Pike heads
Scientific name
	Luciocephalus
	Bleeker , 1851

The pike heads ( Luciocephalus ) are a genus of 10 to 20 centimeters long predatory fish that belongs to the labyrinth fish . The fish live near the surface in rivers and streams in the Malay Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago west of the Wallace Line .

Pike heads are elongated, slightly flattened on the sides, brown in color and with longitudinal stripes that vary from species to species. Her head is big and sharp-mouthed. The upper jaw can be stretched out very far (1/3 of the head length), the mouth then forms a large tube and is pushed over the prey (by body acceleration) (without sucking in! - Lauder & Liem 1983). The dorsal fin is short and stands far back, it has ten to twelve soft rays , the anal fin is divided by an incision and has a hard and 18 to 21 soft rays. The second fin ray of the pelvic fins is elongated like a thread. The number of the respective fin rays hardly differ in the known species. The labyrinth organ is simply built.

Pike heads feed mainly on insects and smaller fish, they are mouthbrooders (males; approx. 30 days).

species

There are two types described:

Luciocephalus aura Tan & Ng, 2005: This species has greenish and brown longitudinal stripes and is only about 10 centimeters long. It comes in the province of Jambi on Sumatra in small forest swamps before.
Luciocephalus pulcher (Gray, 1830): This species has light and dark brown longitudinal stripes and is a maximum of 18-20 centimeters long. It occurs on the Malay Peninsula , South Borneo , Bangka and Belitung .

literature

Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
Hans A. Baensch , Rüdiger Riehl : Aquariums Atlas, Volume 1 . Mergus Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-88244-101-1 .

Web links

Commons : Pike Heads - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Pike heads on Fishbase.org (English)