''Pao brevirostris'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of pufferfish in the family

Tetraodontidae Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...

. It is a tropical freshwater species native to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, where it is known from the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , ...

basin and the Chao Phraya drainage. It inhabits marshes and swamps with dense aquatic plant cover, and the species is known to frequently hide between roots and among submerged foliage. Males of the species reach 9.5 cm (3.7 inches) SL, with females reaching 7.7 cm (3 inches) SL. In captivity, the species has been reported to eat juvenile fish, with individuals involved in a study being fed on juveniles of the species ''

Oreochromis niloticus The Nile tilapia (''Oreochromis niloticus'') is a species of tilapia, a cichlid fish native to the northern half of Africa and the Levante area, including Land of Israel, Israel, and Lebanon. Numerous Introduced species, introduced populations ex ...

'', ''Barbonymus gonionotus'', ''Henicorhynchus siamensis'', and ''Hypophthalmichthys molitrix''.

References

Tetraodontidae Fish of Asia Fish described in 1957 {{Tetraodontiformes-stub