Tropical rainforest waters -- including rivers, creeks, lakes, and swamps -- are home to the majority of freshwater fish species. The Amazon Basin alone has over 3,000 known species and possibly as many unidentified species.

Many of the tropical fish kept in freshwater aquariums are originally from the rainforest. Fish like angelfish, neon tetras, discus, and common algae-eating catfish come from the tropical forests of South America, while danios, gouramis, Siamese fighting fish (or Betta), and the clown loach are from Asia.

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FAQs

• May I use graphics from mongabay.com for my projects? Yes, you may provided that you don't remove the mongabay label from the images. You may use information from the site for class projects and can cite mongabay as the source.
• Is this web site credible? Mongabay is the world's most popular source for information on tropical forests. The site is highly acclaimed by a number of the world's leading tropical scientists. Mongabay Founder Rhett Butler has published several scientific papers.
• Can I interview the founder of mongabay for my school project? Unfortunately Rhett is not available for interviews. However he has answered some common questions on the Rainforest Interview page.
• Do you have any games or activities? Currently there are a few on the resources page.
• How can I help save rainforests? Some ideas are listed at Rainforest Solutions.
• Where can I learn more about rainforests? Check the main rainforest site.