**2. Fish diversity of Indonesian peatlands**

Peatlands are important habitats for aquatic biota including fish [19]. In general, the waters in peatland areas (blackwater) are poor in fauna but have unique characteristics, and many are endemic [21]. The percentage of fish fauna in peatlands areas is only 10% of the possibility that it is in non-peatlands waters. For example, Rachmatika et al. [17] reported that there are 50 species in the peatlands areas in Tesso Nilo National Park compared with non-peatlands areas in Way Kambas National Park, *Sustainable Development: The Case for Aquatic Biodiversity in Indonesia's Peatland Areas DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105919*


#### **Table 1.**

*Number of fish species of peatlands areas in Indonesia.*

and the number of fish reaches 83 species [22]. The records of the species richness in some peatlands areas in Indonesia are listed in **Table 1**.

The specificity of fish communities on peatlands is very high. Anwar et al. [23] reported that the factors that cause the specificity of biota in peatland aquatic ecosystems are thought to be due to the low content of food ingredients, low pH, and low brightness, but the most influential is the very high humus acid (phenol) content. Many types of fish whose habitat is in the form of peatland waters have their own characteristics. Therefore, many have potential and have been traded as ornamental fish. Some of the fish species referred to and originating from peat waters in Indonesia include super red arowana (*Scleropages formosus*), gabus maru (*Channa marulioides*), betta (*Betta* spp.), botia (*Chromobotia macracantha*), seluang (*Rasbora* spp.), sepat pearl (*Trichopodus leerii*), *Luciocephalus pulcher, Sphaerichthys osphromenoides,* and *Chaca bankanensis*. In addition, peatland waters also store fish germplasm which is interesting for further study. The species in question is the world's smallest fish (*Paedocypris progenetica*) found in Jambi's peatlands. The adult size of this fish is only 7.9 mm in total length [24].
