Anabantidae

Climbing perch

Anabas testudineus

Buried in drought swimming into floodplains

• Tropical
• Regional distribution
• East Asia
• South Asia
• Fusiform
• Compressed cross-section
• Medium
• Tropical fish

The climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) is a species of amphibious freshwater fish in the family Anabantidae (the climbing gouramis). A labyrinth fish native to Far Eastern Asia, the fish inhabits freshwater systems from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the west, to Southern China in the east, and to Southeast Asia west of the Wallace Line in the south. It is likely that Anabas testudineus is a species complex, with the binomial name applied to what are actually several different species.