''Gymnochanda'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of fishes in the family Ambassidae, the Asiatic glassfishes. They are native to turbid fresh water habitats near

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

swamp forest Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are found ...

s in

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

, Sumatra and

Belitung Island Belitung ( Belitung Malay: ''Belitong'', formerly Billiton) is an island on the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in the Java Sea. It covers , and had a population of 309,097 at the 2020 Census. Administratively, it forms two regencies ( Beli ...

.Tan, H. H. and K. K. P. Lim. (2014)
''Gymnochanda ploegi'', a new species of ambassid glassperch from West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
''Raffles Bulletin of Zoology'' 62 688–95. They are among the smallest members of the family, reaching a maximum standard length of depending on the exact species involved. They have no

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

and are transparent, revealing the silvery sheen of the

peritoneum The peritoneum is the serous membrane forming the lining of the abdominal cavity or coelom in amniotes and some invertebrates, such as annelids. It covers most of the intra-abdominal (or coelomic) organs, and is composed of a layer of meso ...

lining the abdominal cavity. They are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

, with males bearing longer fins and brighter colors than females.

Species

There are 5 species in the genus: * '' Gymnochanda filamentosa'' Fraser-Brunner, 1955 * '' Gymnochanda flamea'' T. R. Roberts, 1995 * '' Gymnochanda limi''

Kottelat Maurice Kottelat (born 16 July 1957 in Delémont, SwitzerlandC ...

, 1995 * '' Gymnochanda ploegi'' H. H. Tan & K. K. P. Lim, 2014 * '' Gymnochanda verae'' H. H. Tan & K. K. P. Lim, 2011

References

Ambassidae Taxa named by Alec Fraser-Brunner Freshwater fish genera {{Percoidea-stub