448 BULLETIN 18 8, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The fish is very hardy and able to live out of water for protracted 

 periods, depending on the moisture of the air-breathing parts. In 

 Thailand, where Anabas is an important and staple food fish over the 

 whole country, it is the custom to take it to market in wicker baskets 

 or in tubs with little or no water and to expose it for sale out of water 

 on wooden or stone slabs, and the only attention during a long day in 

 the market may be infrequent sprinkling with water. 



In view of the widespread public interest in this fish, it may be 

 appropriate to give the following somewhat detailed account of its 

 history, habits, and special structures, as abstracted and adapted from 

 an article by the present writer published in 1936. 



In 1791 a Dane named Daldorfif, while in Tranquebar, at that time a Danish 

 possession in India, came upon a fish which, during a heavy rainfall, was climb- 

 ing a Palmyra palm and had reached a point 5 feet above the ground. There 

 it was apparently enjoying itself in a little stream running in a fissure in the 

 palm's trunk from a broad frond, which collected the rain water as in a funnel. 

 Nearby was a swamp from which the fish had pi-obably come. 



Daldorff published his observations in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society 

 of London 1797 and described the fish as a new species under the name Perca 

 scandens, or climbing perch. He was the first European to give an account of the 

 live fish, but the species had already received the name testudineus (in reference 

 to its hard covering like a turtle shell) by the German zoologist Bloch in 1795, 

 so the significant name applied by Daldoitf had to yield to the law of priority. 



The name "climbing perch" by which the fish has generally come to be known 

 among English-speaking people and in English works of reference is somewhat 

 inappropriate. The fish is not a perch and is not even remotely related to the 

 true perches, common fresh-water fishes of America, Europe, and northern Asia. 

 The generic name Perca first borne by the fish had no nomenclatorial standing, 

 and in 1817 the fish was brought by Cuvier under the new generic name Anabas, 

 or climber, and became the type of the oriental family Anabantidae, which in- 

 cludes such well-known species as the diminutive paradise fish, the Siamese figlit- 

 ing fish, and the giant goramy. 



Other common names by which this fish has been called are "climbing fish" and 

 "walking fish," but these are borne also by several gobies, catfishes, serpent- 

 head fishes, and others. On the whole, it may be best to adopt the perfectly dis- 

 tinctive generic name as the common designation of the fish in European lan- 

 guages and call it Anahas. 



The blunt head is very hard and the gill covers are bordered with backwardly 

 projecting spines. The body is enclosed in a thick, tough coat covered with hard 

 overlapping scales, which are edged with spinules. The dorsal and anal fins 

 contain sharp spiny rays. The thick skin retards the loss of moisture from the 

 tissues when the fish is out of the water, and the spinous armament discourages 

 or altogether prevents the attacks of water and land snakes, water lizards, birds, 

 and other fishes. The small, conical teeth are in bands in each jaw, and are 

 adapted for crushing insects, shrimps, and snails, which constitute a large part 

 of the food. 



There are gills such as ordinary fishes possess, but the gills in the long process 

 of evolution have become less important and now seem quite inadequate to 

 sustain life. This is easily shown by putting a fish in an aquarium with a wire- 

 mesh screen just below the surface. With inability to take in atmospheric 

 air, the fish begins to suffer and will soon die. The reduced gills represent only 



