''Betta kuehnei'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

gourami Gouramis, or gouramies , are a group of fresh water, freshwater Anabantiformes, anabantiform fish that comprise the family (biology), family Osphronemidae. The fish are native to Asia—from the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia and northeas ...

. It is native to

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, where it occurs in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. It is typically found in shallow, shaded forest creeks among aquatic plants such as '' Cryptocoryne cordata'' and leaf litter. The water in which the species occurs is clear, with a pH of 7, a

hardness In materials science, hardness (antonym: softness) is a measure of the resistance to plastic deformation, such as an indentation (over an area) or a scratch (linear), induced mechanically either by Pressing (metalworking), pressing or abrasion ...

of 3

dGH Degrees of general hardness (dGH or °GH) is a unit of water hardness, specifically of general hardness. General hardness is a measure of the concentration of divalent metal ions such as calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) per volume of wate ...

, and a temperature of 25 °C (77 °F). It is known to occur alongside the species ''

Parosphromenus paludicola ''Parosphromenus'' is a genus of gouramies native to freshwater in Southeast Asia. All species are highly specialized peat swamp inhabitants native to southeast Asia, and the males are usually brightly colored in breeding dress; however, their ne ...

'' and ''

Trichopsis vittata The croaking gourami (''Trichopsis vittata'') is a species of small freshwater labyrinth fish of the gourami family. They are native to still waters in Southeast Asia and are distributed worldwide via the aquarium trade. Croaking gouramis are ca ...

''. The species reaches 8 cm (3.1 inches) in

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

and is known to be a facultative air-breather. Males of the species exhibit

mouthbrooding Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation and buccal incubation, is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a va ...

References

kuehnei Fish of Malaysia Fish of Thailand Taxa named by Ingo Schindler Taxa named by Jürgen Schmidt (biologist) Fish described in 2008 {{anabantiformes-stub