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Crocodile Pikehead Gourami
Luciocephalus pulcher
The pikehead (Luciocephalus puncher) is a species of gourami native to the Malaya Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. It inhabits flooded forests, streams, and peat swamps living in areas with plentiful vegetation. It is a predator and lurks for its prey among plants near the water's surface. As the prey is swallowed, the jaw extends to about one-third of the head length. the extended jaw is folded back into place. It is a mouthbrooder. It is a
From the article Luciocephalus pulcher on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Range & habitat
It can be found in a variety of habitats like flooded forests, streams, and peat swamps, especially in areas with plentiful vegetation.
Wikipedia: “Habitat”
What it does
Compared to most gouramies, it is a highly specialized ambush predator that spends most of its time lying motionless near plants or other cover for potential prey to approach; when it does attack a potential meal (usually a smaller fish), it is able to extend its jaw to about one-third of its body length, allowing it to successfully prey upon fishes almost half of its own length. Like several closely related genera (such as Sphaerichthys), it is a mouthbrooder (in this case a paternal mouthbrooder).
== References ==
Wikipedia: “Behavior”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Luciocephalus pulcher in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 618893.