Fish

Snakehead

Channidae · also called snakeheads, frankenfish

Least Concern → carnivore Rivers & wetlands Temperate grassland

The snakehead is a freshwater predator built for tough water. It breathes air, tolerates warm stagnant ponds that would suffocate other fish, survives days out of water if kept damp, and can wriggle short distances over wet ground to the next pool. In Asia it is a top food fish. In the United States, where a few released species took hold, it became the “frankenfish”.

Overview

Snakeheads are the family Channidae, around 50 species native to fresh waters of Asia and tropical Africa — slow rivers, floodplains, canals, ponds, swamps, and rice paddies. All are carnivores: ambush hunters of fish, frogs, and crayfish, with a flattened snake-like head, a long body, and a long dorsal fin.

Air-breathing and overland travel

Above the gills sit suprabranchial organs that work like primitive lungs, so most adult snakeheads are obligate air-breathers that drown without surface access — but can live in oxygen-poor water. They can survive several days out of water if moist, and species like the northern snakehead can push themselves short distances over wet ground. The idea of them marching far across dry land is exaggerated.

Parents and panic

Snakeheads build a nest and both parents guard the eggs and the shoal of orange fry for weeks, driving off much larger animals. When breeding northern snakeheads turned up in a Maryland pond in 2002, the US poisoned the pond and banned live imports, and the “walking fish” story spawned headlines and horror films.

Status

As a family, Least Concern — the widespread Asian food-fish species are abundant and farmed. Several narrow-range species in the Western Ghats, Myanmar, and Borneo are threatened by habitat loss and the aquarium trade. The northern snakehead is now established in the Potomac and parts of the Mississippi basin, and the bullseye snakehead in Miami canals.

Snakehead: common questions

Can snakeheads really walk on land?

They can move over land, but walk is too strong a word for most species. A snakehead out of water flexes its body from side to side and pushes against the ground with its stiff pectoral fins and tail, producing a slow wriggling crawl, and it can keep this up for a while because it breathes air and its skin resists drying if conditions are damp. The northern snakehead is one of the more capable overland travellers and can cross a stretch of wet grass or mud between ponds. What they do not do is march across dry ground for long distances or roam far from water, and the popular image of a plague of walking fish advancing over the countryside is a media invention.

Why are snakeheads such a problem in the United States?

A few Asian snakehead species were imported for the live food-fish and aquarium trades, and fish that were released or escaped founded wild populations, most famously the northern snakehead discovered in Maryland in 2002. The concern is that they are large, long-lived, fast-growing top predators that eat native fish, frogs, and invertebrates, breed several times a year, guard their young so survival is high, and tolerate poor water and even brief periods out of water, so they can spread through connected waterways and be hard to remove. Whether they have actually caused major ecological damage where established is still debated, but the risk was judged high enough to justify a federal ban on live imports and transport.

What is the difference between a snakehead and a native fish like a bowfin?

The bowfin is a North American fish often mistaken for a snakehead because it is also an elongated, air-gulping predator with a long dorsal fin. The key differences are that a bowfin has a very short anal fin while a snakehead has a long one running most of the length of the underside, the bowfin has a bony gular plate under its chin, and a male bowfin has a black eyespot near the tail. A snakehead has a flattened, snake-like head with large scales on top, a protruding lower jaw, and a more cylindrical body. In the United States, correctly telling them apart matters because anglers are asked to kill snakeheads and release native bowfins.

Should you kill a snakehead if you catch one?

In the United States and other places where snakeheads are non-native and established or newly detected, wildlife agencies generally ask anglers not to release them. The usual guidance is to keep the fish, kill it promptly, and report the catch to the state fish and wildlife agency, ideally with a photo and location, and never to move a live snakehead to another body of water or use one as bait. In their native range in Asia and Africa the situation is the reverse, since there they are a normal and valued part of the fishery. Snakeheads are good eating, with firm white flesh, which is part of why agencies promote catching and eating them.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 10, 2026. Last updated September 10, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Channidae
Diet: A voracious ambush predator of fish, frogs, crayfish, insects, and small reptiles as an adult, with the young eating zooplankton and insect larvae and larger individuals also taking small birds and mammals at the water's surface, hunting mostly by sight in vegetated shallows
They breathe air: Snakeheads have a pair of chambers above the gills called suprabranchial organs that work like primitive lungs, and adults of most species are obligate air-breathers that will drown if they cannot reach the surface, which is also what lets them live in warm, stagnant, low-oxygen water that would kill most fish
Out of water and overland: A snakehead can survive out of water for several days if kept moist, and the northern snakehead and a few others can flex the body and push with the fins to travel short distances over wet ground between water bodies, though the widely repeated image of them marching long distances across dry land is exaggerated
Devoted parents: Snakeheads build a nest, often a clearing in dense vegetation, and both parents guard the floating eggs and then the shoal of bright orange fry for weeks, aggressively driving off animals many times their size, including people who wade too close
The frankenfish panic: When breeding northern snakeheads were found in a Maryland pond in 2002, the United States responded by poisoning the pond, banning imports and interstate transport of live snakeheads, and the story spawned headlines about a fish that walks and several low-budget horror films
A prized food fish at home: In much of Asia snakeheads are among the most valued freshwater food fish, farmed and wild-caught in large quantities, eaten fresh, and used in traditional post-surgery and wound-recovery diets in parts of Southeast Asia, where a soup made from the striped snakehead is believed to aid healing
Established invaders in the US: The northern snakehead is now established in the Potomac River system, parts of the Mississippi basin, and several other states, and the bullseye snakehead is established in canals around Miami, where wildlife agencies encourage anglers to catch and kill any they land
Range: Native to tropical and temperate fresh waters of Asia from Iran and Siberia to Indonesia, and to tropical Africa, in slow rivers, floodplains, canals, ponds, ditches, swamps, rice paddies, and lakes with soft bottoms and dense plants, and introduced and established well outside that range, most notably in the eastern United States, with scattered records elsewhere.
Conservation status: Least Concern → ≈ The family contains around 50 species with very different situations, and most of the widespread Asian food-fish species such as the northern and striped snakeheads are abundant, farmed, and assessed as Least Concern, while several narrow-range species from the Western Ghats of India, Myanmar, and Borneo are restricted, poorly known, and threatened by habitat loss and the aquarium trade, so the family as a whole is secure even though particular species are not in the wild