Crocodile fish (abandoned pet)

Description:

Fish with reticulated pattern. It had a sucker. Greenish-black in colour. Quite dead.

Habitat:

I have never seen such a species before. I was returning from my walk in the morning when I spotted it on the road. I understood from other walkers that it was floating dead in the rainwater drains that run alongside the houses in the residential area. One of them had fished it out; the walkers threw it later in an abandoned plot of land for birds to eat. The drains in which this was found were designed to drain the rainwater into three very large jheels (lakes) that we have close by. Unfortunately in the last 30 years or so the drains have been clogged with plastic and sludge and are breeding grounds for mosquito. It is my theory that someone abandoned aquarium fish in the jheel. The fish made its way up the drain network and of course, it died for the water in the drains is oxygen-poor to put it mildly.. We often get Anabas, Tilapia and Channa species in the drains during the monsoons when water from the jheel overflows and every morning I see Kingfishers (3 species, at least) cormorants, egrets and pond herons having breakfast. This is the first time I have seen an aquarium fish in these waters...a dead one at that. It is cruel really to abandon pets...even fishes! This fish was definitely NOT CAUGHT by angers or for sport.

Notes:

Dangers of releasing exotic species. 1) https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life... 2) https://scroll.in/latest/810463/experts-... 3)https://www.hindustantimes.com/kolkata/the-aliens-have-landed-in-kolkata/story-gmqOYxPzBnPor8X0qMVTtM.html