Badidae

The Badidae or the chameleonfishes are a small family (containing about 30 species) or ray-finned fishes which has been placed in the order Anabantiformes. Despite their apparent affinity to other Anabantiforms, the 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies the family as being a sister to the Anabantiformes, along with the Nandidae and Pristolepididae in an unnamed and unranked but monophyletic clade which is a sister to the Ovalentaria within the wider Percomorpha. 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, while the smallest, Dario dario, does not exceed 2 cm.