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Basculin is not known to evolve into or from any other Pokémon, though it does have two different appearances: one has a red stripe and iris, with a round eye and spiky fins; the other has a blue stripe and iris, with a slit eye and smooth fins.
Basculin has the look of a typical fish, with its bottom part being green and its top part being black, the two parts being separated by a bright red or blue stripe, the rarity of each depending on which game it is encountered in. The red form has a round eye and spiky fins, the blue form has a thin eye and smooth fins. They both have a spiky dorsal fin and a big jaw.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
Behavior
Basculin are violent in nature, and they have a particular dislike for differently colored Basculin. Red and blue Basculin tend to fight each other immediately upon meeting. Occasionally, opposite colors of these Pokémon will get mixed into the other's school.
A few other Basculin appeared during A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition!. A Red-Striped and a Blue-Striped one were seen being reeled in by two unnamed Trainers. Iris managed to fish another Blue-Striped one with her bare hands but was penalized for it.
While many Pokémon are able to have up to three different abilities legitimately, with two primary abilities and a hidden ability, Basculin is the only Pokémon capable of legitimately having four different abilities, with Rock Head being the ability had by an NPC-traded Basculin in Driftveil City in Pokémon White.
Basculin shares its species name with Zweilous. They are both known as Hostile Pokémon.
According to interviews with Ken Sugimori in Nintendo Dream, Basculin was created late in development when they realized there were few new fish Pokémon in Unova, the only others being Alomomola and Stunfisk. It was given two forms to make up for the small amount of fish in the region, and based on a bass since there are wild bass in New York state.
Origin
Basculin were most likely inspired by betta fish. Both sexes of betta display horizontal bars of color either when frightened or setting up a pecking order. They are very violent and can even fight to the death. Its appearance may have been based on a bass or piranha, one of which has historically been viewed as violent.
Name origin
Its English name is a combination of bass and a corruption of masculine. Its Japanese name is probably a combination of バス basu meaning bass, and 丈夫 masurao meaning warrior, referring to its bold, violent nature. Alternatively, it could refer to バカラオ bakarao, bacalhau.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.