Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 19, 2026

Badidae

The Badidae, or the chameleonfishes, are a small family of freshwater ray-finned fish in the order Anabantiformes. Their relationship to other members of the order was previously uncertain, with the 5th edition of Fishes of the World placing the family outside the order, alongside the Nandidae and Pristolepididae, in an unnamed and unranked but monophyletic clade. However, they are now placed in the anantiform suborder Nandoidei. Members of this family are small freshwater fish that are found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand. The largest is Badis assamensis that reaches a standard length of up to 7.5 cm (3 in), while the smallest, Dario dario, does not exceed 2 cm (0.8 in).

Last revised
Jul 19, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
289 w
Citations
8
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Badidae
Badis badis
Dario dario (male)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Anabantiformes
Suborder: Nandoidei
Family: Badidae
Barlow, Liem & Wickler, 1968
Genera1

The Badidae, or the chameleonfishes, are a small family (containing about 30 species) of freshwater ray-finned fish in the order Anabantiformes. Their relationship to other members of the order was previously uncertain, with the 5th edition of Fishes of the World placing the family outside the order, alongside the Nandidae and Pristolepididae, in an unnamed and unranked but monophyletic clade.2 However, they are now placed in the anantiform suborder Nandoidei.3 Members of this family are small freshwater fish that are found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand.456 The largest is Badis assamensis that reaches a standard length of up to 7.5 cm (3 in),7 while the smallest, Dario dario, does not exceed 2 cm (0.8 in).8

References

References

  1. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Family Badidae". FishBase. February 2013 version.
  2. J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. p. 394. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. Archived from the original on 2022-06-01. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  3. Fricke, R.; Eschmeyer, W. N.; Van der Laan, R. (2025). "ESCHMEYER'S CATALOG OF FISHES: CLASSIFICATION". California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
  4. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Badis". FishBase. February 2019 version.
  5. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Dario". FishBase. February 2019 version.
  6. Dahanukar, N.; Kumkar, P.; Katwate, U.; Raghavan, R. (2015). "Badis britzi, a new percomorph fish (Teleostei: Badidae) from the Western Ghats of India". Zootaxa. 3941 (3): 429–436. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3941.3.9. PMID 25947522. S2CID 7291721.
  7. "Badis assamensis". SeriouslyFish. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  8. "Dario dario". SeriouslyFish. Retrieved 16 February 2019.