📸 PhotoPhoto: Henryk Niestrój · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Siamese fighting fish
Betta splendens (Siamese fighting fish · ベタ・スプレンデンス)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its average length of 7.5 cm is slightly shorter than the long side of a credit card (8.56 cm) (Comparison).
- 💡 According to ADW, it is kept as a pet and was also used in staged fights between males in the East. FishBase advises against keeping males in very small containers.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Siamese fighting fish is a small freshwater fish native to the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia, famous as an aquarium fish for its fighting males and bright colors. It can also breathe air.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body is streamlined to cut smoothly through water, and its scales overlap like roof tiles and are covered in mucus. It breathes air and comes in varieties of many colors.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
In the wild, it eats insects that fall into the water, zooplankton, and mosquito larvae. Males build nests out of air bubbles and fight other males over territory.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List VU (2011) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/180889/7653828
- • IUCN Red List category VU — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — LP2V
- • iucnredlist.org — 7653828
- • wikidata.org — Q549
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Bojownik syjamski.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Betta splendens
- • fishbase.se — Betta-splendens.html
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Fidji Berio · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Trichopsis schalleri)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.