Macropodusinae

Paradise fish
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Actinopterygii
Order:Anabantiformes
Family:Osphronemidae
Subfamily:Macropodusinae
Hoedeman 1948[1]
Genera

The Macropodusinae are a subfamily of freshwater perciform fishes in the gourami family Osphronemidae. Like all members of the family, these are air breathing fishes that frequently inhabit oxygen poor environments hostile to other fishes (the licorice gouramies of Parosphromenus inhabit well-oxygenated, but extremely soft and acidic, blackwater streams). They are native to Asia, from Pakistan and India to the Malay Archipelago and north-easterly towards Korea. Many members are common aquarium fish; by far the most famous is the Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens (note that the domesticated form is very likely a hybrid). Most (not all) of the 70+ betta species are paternal mouthbrooders; the remaining members of the subfamily are bubblenesters like most osphronemids.

Species

The following are some of the many species in this subfamily. Betta is by far the largest genus with over 70 species (more than the rest of the subfamily combined and easily the largest osphronemid genus), followed by Parosphromenus (which, with at least 20 species, is the next most speciose osphronemid genus).

References

  1. Van der Laan, R.; Eschmeyer, W. N.; Fricke, R. (11 November 2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa Monograph 3882: 129. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1.
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