Fishes of the family Anabantidae are often referred to as Climbing perches. This name bases on a species of fish that is very famous among mankind, even in people who are not much interested in fish at all: Anabas testudineus. The species is known to walk over land at wet weather to search for new habitats. The fish “walks” with s-shaped moves and uses the strongly serrated and wide spread opercles as abutments. They are not slow at all! A hobbyist who tries to pack such a fish in a bag has to hurry, for otherwise the fish will climb out of the net very fast! But it is a pure legend that Climbing perches climb on palm trees to fuddle on fermented palm juice…
From a systematic point of view the Climbing perches are literally unexplored. Only two species are widely accepted, Anabas testudineus, which is said to inhabit the complete tropical Asia, and the Bengal species Anabas cobojius. However, there are many more species. We recently imported Climbing perches from Bengal. Most specimens belong to a large headed species with only very small black spots behind the opercle and on the caudal peduncle, one specimen belongs to a second species with a much smaller head and much larger spots. However, none of both is identical with A. testudineus or A. cobojius. It was only for practical reasons that we listed them on our stocklist under the name of Anabas testudineus.
Climbing perches are not colorful fish, but quite interesting. They can be kept along with barbs and catfish. Anabas do not care for the brood, the eggs are spawned free in the water column and spread over the water surface after that.
For our customers: the fish have code 364202 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
| Angaben zum Tier | |
|---|---|
| Herkunft | Indien / India |
| Verfügbare Größe in cm | 8-10 |
