Ikan gabus merupakan jenis fauna yang hidup pada perairan tawar. ikan ini mampu bertahan hidup selama musim kemarau dengan menggali lumpur pada danau, kanal dan rawa. ikan gabus juga merupakan salah satu sumber protein dan bernilai ekonomi penting di beberapa negara terutama di asia tenggara, seperti thailand, malaysia dan indonesia penelitian dilakukan dua tahap yaitu pengambilan sampel di lapangan, dan menganalisis sampel ikan di laboratorium. pengambilan sampel dilakukan dibeberapa perairan kalimantan utara yaitu sungai begawan (tarakan), sungai lasesalo (sebatik), sungai rahayu (bulungan), sungai jepun (nunukan) dan sungai sesayap (malinau). identifikasi molekuler terhadap ikan gabus dilakukan melalui empat tahapan. adapun tahapan-tahapan tersebut yaitu ekstraksi dna, amplifikasi dna menggunakan pcr, elektroforesis dna hasil pcr dan sekuensing gen coi. sekuen yang telah dicocokan persentase kemiripannya yang ada pada genbank ncbi yaitu memiliki kemiripan dari kisaran 98,78% - 100% dengan spesies channa striata. ini menandakan bahwa spesies ikan gabus asal perairan kalimantan utara merupakan channa striata. kata kunci: coi, morfologi, jarak genetik, filogenetik, channa striata

Snakehead fish is a type of fauna that lives in freshwater streams. this fish is able to survive during the dry season by digging in the mud. snakehead fish is also a source of protein and has high economic value in several countries, especially in southeast asia, such as thailand, malaysia and indonesia. the research was conducted in two stages, namely sampling in the field, and analyzing fish samples in the laboratory. sampling was conducted in several waters of north kalimantan, namely begawan river (tarakan), lasesalo river (sebatik), rahayu river (bulungan), jepun river (nunukan) and sesayap river (malinau). molecular identification of snakehead fish was carried out through four phases. the stages were dna extraction, dna amplification using pcr, dna electrophoresis of pcr results and coi gene sequencing. the sequences that have been matched with the percentage of similarity in ncbi genbank were similar in the range of 98.78%- 100% with the species channa striata. this indicates that the species of snakehead fish from north kalimantan waters is channa striata. keywords: coi, morphology, genetic distance. phylogenetics, channa striata