Anabas.—Body compressed, oblong; præorbital and orbitals serrated. Small teeth in the jaws and on the vomer; none on the palatines. Dorsal and anal spines numerous. Lateral line interrupted.
The “Climbing Perch” (A. scandens) is generally distributed over the Indian Region, and well known from its faculty of moving for some distance over land, and even up inclined surfaces. In 1797 Daldorf, in a memoir communicated to the Linnean Society of London, mentions that in 1791 he had himself taken an Anabas in the act of ascending a palm tree which grew near a pond. The fish had reached the height of five feet above the water, and was going still higher. In the effort to do this it held on to the bark of the tree by the preopercular spines, bent its tail, and stuck in the spines of the anal; then released its head, and, raising it, took a new hold with the preoperculum higher up. The fish is named in the Malayan language the “Tree Climber.” It rarely attains a length of seven inches.
Spirobranchus from the Cape, and Ctenopoma from Tropical Africa, represent Anabas in that continent.
Polyacanthus.—Body compressed, oblong; operculum without spines or serrature; cleft of the mouth small, more or less oblique, not extending beyond the vertical from the orbit, and little protractile. Small fixed teeth in the jaws, none on the palate. Dorsal and anal spines numerous; the soft dorsal and anal, the caudal, and the ventral, more or less elongate in mature specimens. Caudal rounded. Lateral line interrupted or absent.
This genus is represented chiefly in the East Indian Archipelago; seven species are known; some of them have been domesticated on account of the beauty of their colours, and several varieties have been produced. One of them is to be mentioned, as, under the name of “Paradise-fish,” it has been introduced into the aquaria of Europe, where it readily breeds. It was known already to Lacépède, and has been mentioned since his time in all ichthyological works as Macropus viridi-auratus. In adult males some of the rays, and especially the caudal lobes, are much prolonged.
Osphromenus.—Body compressed, more or less elevated; operculum without spine or serrature. Small fixed teeth in the jaws, none on the palate. Dorsal spines in small or moderate number; anal spines in moderate or great number; ventral fins with the outer ray very long, filiform. Lateral line not interrupted or absent.
Fig. 236.—Osphromenus olfax.
To this genus belongs the celebrated “Gourami” (Osphromenus olfax), reputed to be one of the best flavoured Freshwater-fishes in the East-Indian Archipelago. Its original home is Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and several other islands; but thence it has been transported to, and acclimatised in, Penang, Malacca, Mauritius, and even Cayenne. Being an almost omnivorous fish and tenacious of life, it seems to recommend itself particularly for acclimatisation in other tropical countries, and specimens kept in captivity become as tame as carps. It attains the size of a large turbot. A second, but much smaller, species of this genus, O. trichopterus, is frequently kept in vessels on account of the exquisite beauty of its varying iridescent metallic tints; like other fishes of this family it is very pugnacious.
Trichogaster, a very common Bengalese fish, differs from Osphromenus in having the ventral fins reduced to a single long filament.