Chanos chanos
(Forsskål, 1775) · speciesAt a glance
Sources12 archives
Databases and archives Chanos chanos's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation19 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 029 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System1 748 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI343 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics227 specimens↗
FooDBThe Metabolomics Innovation Centrecompounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The milkfish (Chanos chanos) is the sole living species in the family Chanidae. However, there are at least five extinct genera from the Cretaceous. The repeating scientific name (tautonym) is from Greek ( ‘mouth’).“from Greek chanos mouth” The species has many common names. The Hawaiian name for the fish is awa, and in Tahitian it is ava. It is called bangús in the Philippines, where it is popularly known as the national fish, although the National Commission for Culture and the Arts has stated that this is not the case as it has no basis in Philippine law. In the Nauruan language, it is referred to as . Milkfish is also called bandeng or bolu in Indonesia. Chanos chanos occurs in the Indian Ocean and across the Pacific Ocean, from South Africa to Hawaii and the Marquesas, from California to the Galapagos, north to Japan, south to Australia. Milkfishes commonly live in tropical offshore marine waters around islands and along continental shelves, at depths of 1 to 30 m. They also frequently enter estuaries and rivers.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology2
Life cycle & reproduction3
Habitat & environment4
Uses & economy1
Other traits3
Compounds documented for Chanos chanos across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Documented compounds35 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| L-Glutamic acid | 3,929 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| L-Aspartic acid | 2,695 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| epsilon-Polylysine | 2,417 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| L-Leucine | 2,139 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| L-Alanine | 1,592 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| Arginine | 1,575 mg/100g | FooDB |
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Chanos chanos has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Chanos chanos carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard periods (Jurassic, Cretaceous…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. The dashed rules marked ✦ are the five great mass extinctions. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type3 777 records
Origin
Range
Depth
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions21 of 47 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Sydney, AU | 98 |
| Paris, FR | 41 |
| Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Instituto Politécnico Nacionallocation not on record | 30 |
| CASlocation not on record | 27 |
| Natick, US | 25 |
| Washington, US | 25 |
| Kagoshima University Museumlocation not on record | 21 |
| Los Angeles, US | 20 |
| SEAOBISlocation not on record | 16 |
| Cambridge, US | 13 |
| FishBaselocation not on record | 12 |
| South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversitylocation not on record | 10 |
| University of California San Diegolocation not on record | 10 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 9 |
| Chicago, US | 9 |
| Guasave, MX | 8 |
| Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territorylocation not on record | 7 |
| Vancouver, CA | 7 |
| Western Australian Museumlocation not on record | 6 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 5 |
| Stockholm, SE | 5 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 5 |
| Tapachula, MX | 4 |
| Curtin Universitylocation not on record | 4 |
| New Haven, US | 3 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 3 |
| Toronto, CA | 3 |
| 3 | |
| Museums Victorialocation not on record | 2 |
| Muséum National d'Histoire Naturellelocation not on record | 2 |
| San Francisco, US | 2 |
| University of Minnesota, James Ford Bell Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 2 |
| Australian National Fish Collectionlocation not on record | 2 |
| Morelia, MX | 2 |
| CSIRO Oceans and Atmospherelocation not on record | 2 |
| Mutare Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Zacatecas, MX | 1 |
| Gujarat Biodiversity Gene Banklocation not on record | 1 |
| Fisheries Faculty of Akdeniz Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korealocation not on record | 1 |
| Fisheries Research Laboratory, Mie Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Texas Memorial Museum, Texas Natural History Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| Puerto Ayora, EC | 1 |
| PUC-RSlocation not on record | 1 |
| Facultad de Ciencias Marinas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja Californialocation not on record | 1 |
| Mexico City, MX | 1 |
| Smithsonianlocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Chanos chanos was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.