Showing posts with label fish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fish. Show all posts

Monday, November 22, 2010

Stuffed Snakehead Fish: a popular Thai cuisine

Public Domain Photo: Snakehead fish stuffed with herbs (mainly lemon grass and lime leaves) on banana leaves, ready for steaming – a popular cuisine in Thailand. Photo dimension: 2816×2112 pixels, size: 2359 KB

Public Domain Photo: Snakehead fish or mudfish (Channa striata). Photo dimension: 489×142 pixels, size: 21 KB

The striped snakehead fish or mudfish (Channa striata, in Thai language: Pla Chon) is very popular in Thai cuisine. Pla ra, a fermented fish sauce, popular in Northeastern Thai cuisine is made by pickling snakehead fish. A Chinese sausage is also prepared with striped snakehead flesh in Thailand. In Indonesia the snakehead fish called gabus is a popular salted fish in Indonesian cuisine.

The snakehead fish (also known as chevron snakehead, aruan or haruan) has also been classified under the binomial names Ophiocephalus striatus Bloch and Ophiocephalus vagus Peters. It can grow to a length of 1 meter in the wild. It can be found in southern China, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and in most of Southeast Asian countries. It has recently been introduced to Indonesia, Philippines, Mauritius, and into the wild in Hawaii (in the island of Oahu).

Monday, September 13, 2010

Discus fish of the genus Symphysodon

PD Photo: Blue Discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciata)
PD Photo: Discus fish, variuos, in the home aquarium
PD Photo: Red Turquoise Discus Fish
PD Photo: Discuss Fish, Symphysodon hybrid from Beijing, China
Discuss fish, a native of the Amazon River
PD Photo: Blue discus (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) with color variation

Discus fish (Symphysodon genus) are a genus of three species of cichlid freshwater fishes native to the Amazon River basin. They are popular as aquarium fish and in aquaculture. Discus fish belong to the genus Symphysodon, which includes three species: the Common Discus (Symphysodon aequifasciatus), the Heckel Discus (Symphysodon discus) and Symphysodon tarzoo.

Like cichlids, all Symphysodon species have a laterally compressed body shape, and rounded shape from which their name discus is derived. The sides of the fish are patterned in shades of green, red, brown, and blue.