What does a mullet look like

Mullet, also known as snakehead fish or raw fish, is a common fish species in my country and can be farmed. Its meat is very delicate and has high nutritional value. It has a good conditioning and health-care effect on the body. Mullet's body is relatively slender, and can reach more than half a meter in length. It can weigh about one kilogram. Its body is gray-black and its abdomen is light white. Let us learn about this aspect below.

What does mullet look like?

The body of the mullet is slender, up to 50 cm long and weighing 0.5 kg. It is cylindrical in the front and laterally flattened in the back. The head is long, slightly flat in the front and slightly raised in the back. The snout is short and blunt, the mouth is large and terminal, the mouth fissure is slightly oblique and extends to the lower edge behind the eye, and the lower jaw is slightly protruding. The teeth are small and arranged in bands on the upper and lower jaws, and the teeth on both sides of the lower jaw are strong and sharp. The eyes are small, located on the upper side, in the front half of the head, quite close to the tip of the snout. There are two pairs of nostrils. The anterior nostrils are located at the tip of the snout and are tubular in shape, while the posterior nostrils are located above the eyes and are small round holes.

The gill slits are large, the left and right gill membranes are fused and not connected to the cheeks. The gill rakers are short and thick and sparsely arranged. There is a suprabranchial organ with auxiliary function on each side above the gill cavity. The body color of the black snakehead is gray-black, with darker back and top of the head, pale white abdomen, irregular black spots on each side of the body, and two rows of black spots on each side of the head. The odd fins have black and white spots, while the even fins are grayish yellow with irregular spots. The snakehead fish is covered with medium-sized, round scales all over its body, and the top of its head is covered with irregular scales. The lateral line is straight, with a small bend above the anus, and two rows of scales moving downward, running along the middle of the body side and extending to the base of the tail. [1] The dorsal fin of the snakehead is quite long, almost connected to the caudal fin, has no spines, and starts above the base of the pectoral fin, close to the tip of the snout. The pelvic fin is short, starting from below the 4th-5th dorsal fin rays and ending not reaching the anus. The pectoral fins are rounded, with the tip extending beyond the middle of the pelvic fin. The anal fin is shorter than the dorsal fin and originates below the 15th-16th ray of the anal fin. The tail fin is round. Anus is located just in front of the anal fin. The swim bladder of the black snakehead is single-chambered, slender, rounded at the front and pointed at the end, extending to above the base of the anal fin. The stomach is sac-shaped, with two long and thick pyloric protrusions, about 1/3 the size of the intestine. The intestine is short and hyperbolic, longer than half the body length. The main characteristics of the Heilongjiang subspecies of the black snakehead are: the back is dark green and black, the sides of the body have irregular black and green colors, the dorsal fin and caudal fin are the same color as the back, and the pectoral fins and anal fins are light in color. The main differences between the black snakehead and the spotted snakehead are that the black snakehead has a longer body and the spotted snakehead has a shorter body. There are also obvious differences in the markings on the top of their heads: the black snakehead has seven-star markings on the top of its head, while the spotted snakehead has markings on the top of its head that resemble the Chinese character "188". In addition, the black snakehead's head is longer and more pointed, more like a snake.

Geographical Distribution

Except for the plateau areas, the black snakehead is mainly distributed in the Yangtze River basin and the area north to Heilongjiang, especially in Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan, Liaoning and other provinces. It also occurs south of the Yangtze River Basin, but is less common. The Heilongjiang subspecies of the black snakehead is mainly distributed in the southern part of the Heilongjiang River basin, the Ussuri River basin, and swamp areas such as Lake Khanka and the Songhua River. The spotted snakehead is distributed in areas south of the Yangtze River basin, especially in Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Fujian, Yunnan and other places.

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