Habits and regions of Oriental cuttlefish (Snakehead Snakehead)

Oriental cuttlefish (Garra orientalis) belongs to the order Cypriniformes, family Cyprinidae, subfamily Garra, and genus Garra orientalis. Commonly known as: lion fish, snub-nosed fish, cuttlefish, mullet, and leprosy-nosed fish. English name: Oriental sucking barb.

The body is long, cylindrical, with a flat abdomen and a flat tail. The head is broad, the snout is round and blunt, and there are many rough horny protrusions at the front end. The front of the nose is deeply sunken, and the snout is divided into two parts. The upper part is a free snout process, which is more obvious in males and has well-developed beads, but is not obvious in juvenile fish. The mouth is lower, crescent-shaped, the edge of the upper lip is tassel-shaped, the lower lip has a developed round sucker, a fleshy pad in the center, and free flakes around the edge; its rear edge is slightly wider than the front edge, and there are small, milky, fleshy protrusions on it. There is a shallow groove between the pad and the front lamella, and there are 2 pairs of barbels; the scales are larger, and the scales on the ventral surface are very small before the base of the pectoral fin. The dorsal fin has no spines. The back of the body is dark black, the abdomen is gray-white, each fin is gray-black, slightly orange, and the orange is more obvious in juvenile fish; there is a black spot on the back of each scale on the side of the body, so there are 6 black parallel stripes on each side of the body.

The Oriental Cuttlefish often inhabits environments with rapid water flow in rivers and mountain streams. It adheres to rocks with its saucer-shaped suction cups and lives a bottom-dwelling life. Most of the food is algae, often mixed with sediment. It matures earlier, and the spawning period is in March. Spawning requires flowing water conditions, so it usually spawns during flood periods.

Oriental cuttlefish is distributed in the Pearl River, Minjiang River, Jiulong River, Hanjiang River, Yuanjiang River, Hainan Island and other water systems in southern my country.

It grows slowly and is smaller than the Dongpo cuttlefish, with the largest individual only reaching about 30 cm. However, its body is rich in fat and its meat tastes extremely delicious. It is regarded as a rare fish in the producing area. Fishermen in the production area often grill the fish directly on the fire and eat it, which gives it a more original flavor. The output is not high and it only has a high value in the place of origin.

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