The genus name Betta is derived from the Malay term "ikan betah", which means "persistent fish". The species name, however, comes from the Kadazan-dusun term for a hill, nuluhon. This is because of the hill streams Betta nuluhon was discovered in.[3]
Description
Betta nuluhon are brown to dark brown with body scales rimmed with bright blue. A dark stripe extends from the upper jaw through the eye to the opercle edge, a dark suborbital stripe and a chin bar are present. [3]The body consists of a yellow dorsal region, black lateral regions, and a reddish ventral region. Male B. nuluhon may exhibit a greenish-blue iridescence on the opercle. The dorsal fin is brown with 4 to 6 traverse bars, the caudal fin has 12 to 16 dark transverse bars, the anal fin is plain with a reddish-brown margin, and the pelvic fin has a whitish second filamentous ray. The fish examined for this study had standard lengths from 39.8 to 62.6 mm.[3]
Distribution and habitat
Contrary to the trend of being situated in stagnant peat swamps with a low pH and little to no dissolved oxygen of most species of the Betta genus, Betta nuluhon is found in hill streams with fast-flowing, high-oxygen, and a neutral pH. It is found in the Crocker Range Nature Reserve in Western Sabah.[3]
^Kamal, N. S. S., Tan, H. H., & Ng, C. K. C. (2020). Betta nuluhon, a new species of fighting fish from western Sabah, Malaysia (Teleostei: Osphronemidae). Zootaxa, 4819(1), zootaxa.4819.1.11. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4819.1.11
