Of all the ornamental fish available to aquarists, labyrinth fishes would certainly be among the most interesting and colorful. These subtropical and tropical fishes are restricted to Africa and Asia, and belong to the suborder Anabantoidei. This suborder is divided into three families: Anabantidae (climbing perches: four genera and 33 species), Helostomatidae (kissing gourami: one genera and species) and Osphronemidae (all other gouramis, bettas and paradisefish: 14 genera and 49 species) (Froese and Pauly, 2006; Ralf Britz, personal communication, 2007).
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