I have just been wondering which animals live on the Asian rice paddies? I was just thinking an Asian rice paddie exhibit would be pretty cool (they have one at the Singapore river safari).
Rice fishes, Oryzias species, live in the paddies and consume insect larvae. Remember that large animals are as welcome in a paddy field as they would be in a field of wheat, maize, potatoes or any other crop. Alan
In addition to assorted invertebrates (crustacean like freshwater crabs and shrimp, snails and insects, incl. Kirkaldyia+Lethocerus giant water bugs), there are a number of fish regularly seen in rice fields. In addition to the Oryzias rice fish (it's actually only a few species from the genus, generally the widespread ones, that are known from rice fields), species regularly seen in rice fields include smaller cyprinids (especially zebrafish and Esomus flying barbs), gouramis (snakeskin is perhaps the best-known from this habitat, but also various Betta, Macropodus, Trichogaster, etc), Badis, snakeheads, Monopterus swamp eel and small to medium-sized catfish (especially Bagridae and Clariidae). What unites most of these are their high level of mobility or their ability to live in habitats with varying qualities of water (e.g. little oxygen), which is necessary when the water levels are low. There are also plenty of frogs regularly found in rice fields (especially Ranidae), as well as smaller and medium-sized semi- or fully aquatic snakes. There are relatively few mammals in rice field habitats, primarily rodents (unsurprisingly including a range of species with "rice" in their name, but also others). Most other mammals are typically only short-term visitors, like macaques and smaller carnivorans. Virtually any smaller seed-eating bird that thrives in open habitats will visit rice fields. There are also all the usual waterbirds like ducks, rails, herons and alike.
When I went several years ago they had giant water bugs,giant vetinamese mossy frogs and lesser adjutant storks.
