Fish African Coffee Snakehead Or Dark Snakehead (Parachanna Obscura) Stock Image

The African coffee snakehead or dark snakehead (Parachanna obscura) is a species of fish in the snakehead family of the order Perciformes. Distributed in the basins of the Senegal, Volta, Niger, Nile, Congo rivers, as well as Lake Chad. The body is elongated, strongly compressed laterally, covered with medium scales. The dorsal and anal fins extend across the entire body and do not touch the caudal fin. The head is large, elongated, compressed in front, covered with larger scales than on the body. The eyes are large, located on the sides, helping to quickly find the victim. The mouth is large, studded with two rows of teeth, the lower jaw is slightly longer than the upper, and the upper jaw has a pair of short antennae. The color varies from blackish to very dark olive, the body is covered with dark spots, some of them connected. The belly has a yellowish, reddish and brownish marbled color. A large expanding dark stripe stretches between the posterior edge of the eye and the posterior part of the gill cover. Fins with more or less pronounced dark spots forming oblique stripes at the base of the caudal fin there is a small dark round spot. Found in streams, ponds, rivers, lakes, swamps, lagoons, swamps and floodplains.