Popular media and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service were perpetuating this apparent mistake as recently as 2002.

Subsequently, it returns to permanent water bodies in the dry season, where it survives by burrowing in the mud.

Common snakeheads are known as ngayan (ငါးရံ့) in Burmese; Nga-mu porom in Meitei, xól/xol (শ’ল/শল) in Assamese, Garai (गरई) in North Indian Languages, saur (सौर) in Awadhi,[11] shol (শোল) in Bengali,"sol" (سول) in Urdu, Pakistan, Sheula (ଶେଉଳ) in Odia, varaal/kannan/braal/ (വരാല്, കണ്ണൻ,ബ്രാൽ) (in malayalam kerala), India; viral/mural/selumural/nedumural (in Tamil: விரால்,முறால்,செலுமுரல்,நெடுமுரல்) in Tamil Nadu, India; "poochepa" Koramenu/Korra matta (Telugu: కొర్ర మేను/కొర్ర మట్ట), India; Madenji (Tulu: ಮಡೆಂಜಿ) in Tulu Nadu, India; and Loola ලූලා in Sri Lanka; trey ross (Khmer: ត្រីរ៉ស់), pla chon (Thai: ปลาช่อน) in Thailand;[12] gabus in Indonesia; haruan in Malaysia;[13] dalak in Brunei and haloan, aruan, haruan, in Malay, cá lóc đồng in Vietnamese, 生鱼, 泰国鳢 in Chinese, halwan, bulig, dalag, turagsoy or "mudfish" in the Philippines.

The fish is also an esteemed delicacy in other parts of India, including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Grilled fish is a common food item offered by street vendors or in kaeng som.

Pla ra, a fermented fish sauce popular in northeastern Thai cuisine, is made by pickling common snakehead and keeping it for some time.

Another delicay dish popular in Lower Myanmar uses only intestines of striped snakhead in the curry instead of the flesh is known as ngayan au sibyan ငါးရံ့အူဆီပြန်.

Worldwide inland fish culture industry is suffering from massive economic losses due to epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) and fish-based pathogens.

The Bathini Goud Brothers in Hyderabad, India, promote the swallowing of live murrel fish and herbs claimed as a treatment for asthma, although the high court ruled they cannot call it "medicine".