Size - Up to 8cm
Range - Thailand and Malaysia
Water - Not critical, pH about 7.0. Hardness about 50-150ppm
Food - Prefers a carnivorous diet of live or frozen foods but will eat dry foods.
Temperature - Can survive as low as 12`C - 25`C
Temperament - Quite suitable for community aquariums. Is not aggressive to other fish or females of its own species.

Male Siamese fighting fish are extremely aggressive toward each other. In the confines of an aquarium, battles between males often end in death, although they are usually peaceful toward females and other fish. Well known for their fighting habit, male Siamese fighting fish have been developed to have magnificent finnage in spectacular colour combinations of brilliant red, blues and greens. Females are not as colourful, have relatively small fins and normally do not fight.

Fighters, like paradise fish and gouramis, have a supplementary respiratory organ known as a labyrinth. This organ allows the fighter (and other labyrinth fish) to obtain oxygen directly from the atmosphere, therefore enabling them to live and grow in the confines of a jar.

Fighting fish can easily be coaxed into brilliant displays of territorial aggression, by holding a mirror flat against the side of the aquarium. The fighting fish believes his own reflection is an intruding male and will spread his fins and flash his most brilliant colours in a bid to scare off the perceived intruder.