Perfume basin

Macropodus erythropterus is a paradisefish from coastal hill streams of central Vietnam, in Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces. Occasionally traded, sometimes as 'red-backed paradisefish', it is often misidentified as M. spechti, which lacks red in the dorsal, anal and caudal fins. Whether the two represent the same taxon has been debated. A bubble nester, it is relatively peaceful unless breeding.

The black paradise fish, Macropodus spechti, is a labyrinth fish from central Vietnam, known with certainty from the Thu Bồn and Hương river systems. Its name is frequently misapplied to the similar-looking M. erythropterus, easily identified by reddish pigmentation in the dorsal, anal and caudal fins. Older literature sometimes refers to it as M. concolor. Relatively peaceful unless breeding, it is kept in pairs.