''Betta miniopinna'' is a species of
gourami
Gouramis, or gouramies , are a group of freshwater anabantiform fishes that comprise the family Osphronemidae. The fish are native to Asia—from the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia and northeasterly towards Korea. The name "gourami", of ...
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
Bintan Island
Bintan Island or ''Negeri Segantang Lada'' is an island in the Riau archipelago of Indonesia. It is part of the Riau Islands province, the capital of which, Tanjung Pinang, lies in the island's south and is the island's main community.
Bintan's l ...
in the
Riau Archipelago
The Riau Archipelago is a ''geographic'' term (as opposed to administrative region) for the core group of islands within the Riau Islands Province in Indonesia, and located south of Singapore and east of Riau on Sumatra. Before the province of Ri ...
of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
.
Etymology
The
binomial
Binomial may refer to:
In mathematics
*Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms
* Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials
*Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition
...
''Betta miniopinna'' is derived from the vernacular
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
term ''ikan betah'', which refers to the broad categorization of species in this genus ''Betta;'' and miniopinna, from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''minius'' (cinnabar-red) and ''pinna'' (fin), in reference to the reddish colouration of the species' pelvic fins.
Distribution and ecology
''Betta miniopinna'' is stenotopic to densely forested
peat swamps and associated streams near
Tanjong Bintan
Tanjong Public Limited Company is a Malaysian powere generation, entertainment, and real estate conglomerate. It was founded as Tanjong Tin Dredging Ltd on 2 January 1926 in England. The company subsequently changed its name to Tanjong PLC in 1 ...
on Pulau Bintan (in which it is sympatric to ''
B. spilotogena)'', characterized by an acidic blackwater habitat (of a
pH of 4.9-6) formed as a consequence of the abundant decay of humic material and the effusion of tannins from decaying leaves. The substrate of these swamps consists of a soft mud, covered with submerged leaf litter and branches, and a dense system of submerged roots. It is apparent that these systems of peat swamps are desiccated over periods of several weeks in the absence of rain, forcing the fish to survive within the moist leaf litter. It has been documented- both ''in situ'' and ''ex situ -'' that this species utilizes a paternal bubblenesting habit, a typical mating behavior among its congeners.
Threats
The species' narrow extent of occurrence has been restricted to a region of degraded peat swamps, turbid from a number of construction efforts which had been implemented in order to establish touristic industries on the island. Threats to peat-forest endemics from the conversion of swamps to monoculture plantations, and the abundance of construction in such regions are considered to pose immense conservation concerns.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3320217
miniopinna
Freshwater fish of Indonesia
Fish described in 1994
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot