labyrinth fish

labyrinth fish, any of the small tropical fish of the suborder Anabantoidei (order Perciformes). Labyrinth fishes, like most other fishes, breathe with their gills, but they also possess a supplemental breathing structure, the labyrinth, for which they are named. This apparatus, located in a chamber above the gills, is liberally supplied with blood vessels. It enables the fishes to use oxygen from air gulped in through the mouth and thus to survive out of, or in oxygen-poor, water.

The labyrinth fishes are found in the freshwaters of Asia and Africa. They are often called bubble-nest builders because the males of most species build, guard, and maintain a foamy nest of soaplike bubbles that floats at the surface.

There are about 70 species of labyrinth fishes; some are commonly kept in home aquariums. The various species, once grouped together in the family Anabantidae, may be placed in five families: Badidae, Anabantidae, Belontiidae, Helostomatidae, and Osphronemidae.

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For more information on labyrinth fish species and groups, see climbing perch; gourami; Siamese fighting fish.