Sulawesi's lakes and rivers
25 speciesSulawesi, Indonesia · the Malili lakes, Lake Poso and the island's streams
Sulawesi holds the family's largest radiation, and much of it is endemic to single lakes or lake systems, among them Lakes Matano, Towuti and Poso, along with the rivers and streams that feed them. The lakes differ in depth, clarity and substrate, and the ricefishes differ with them. Many species here are pelvic brooders, the female carrying her fertilised eggs on her body for a time before depositing them. Species with a very small range are exposed to anything that changes their one lake.
- Adrianichthys kruyti
- Adrianichthys oophorus
- Adrianichthys poptae
- Adrianichthys roseni
- Oryzias asinua
- Oryzias bonneorum
- Oryzias celebensis
- Oryzias dopingdopingensis
- Oryzias eversi
- Oryzias hadiatyae
- Oryzias kalimpaaensis
- Oryzias landangiensis
- Oryzias loxolepis
- Oryzias marmoratus
- Oryzias matanensis
- Oryzias moramoensis
- Oryzias nebulosus
- Oryzias nigrimas
- Oryzias orthognathus
- Oryzias polylepis
- Oryzias profundicola
- Oryzias sarasinorum
- Oryzias soerotoi
- Oryzias wolasi
- Oryzias woworae
Mainland rice paddies, ponds and floodplains
11 speciesSouth and mainland Southeast Asia · India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam
Across the mainland, ricefishes live where water stands shallow and slow: rice paddies and their irrigation ditches, ponds, swamps, seasonally flooded plains and the quiet margins of large rivers, with some species also in brackish coastal water. The system that gave the family its common name is a human-made one, and these fish have long shared it with farmers.
East Asian ponds, creeks and paddies
6 speciesJapan, Korea, China and Taiwan
The medaka live in the slow, shallow, often plant-rich waters of the East Asian lowlands: ponds, ditches, small streams and the rice paddies for which the family is named. They tolerate a wide range of temperature through the year and, in the north of their range, survive cold winters. Oryzias latipes, the Japanese medaka, is the best-known member of the family.
Island Southeast Asian lowlands
4 speciesThe Philippines, Java and the Lesser Sunda islands
On the islands outside Sulawesi, ricefishes occupy lowland ponds, streams and estuaries, some of them in brackish water close to the sea. Several of these species have small, poorly documented ranges, and records for the group are sparse.