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While it is not known to evolve into or from any other Pokémon, it does have two different appearances: Red-Striped, one has a red stripe and irises, with a round eye and spiky fins; Blue-Striped, the other has a blue stripe and irises, 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. Red-Striped Basculin has a round eye and spiky fins, while Blue-Striped Basculin 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. They often form schools of the same color. 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.
Habitat
Basculin live primarily in fresh water throughout the Unova region.
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, Blue-Striped Basculin is the only Pokémon capable of legitimately having four different abilities, with Rock Head being the Ability of an NPC-traded Blue-Striped Basculin from Driftveil City in Pokémon White.
However, Blue-Striped Basculin with Rock Head instead of Reckless can be caught in the wild in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, meaning it may be a programming error.
Basculin shares its species name with Zweilous. They are both known as Hostile Pokémon.
Basculin's Pokédex entry in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 describe the species as being very tasty, one of the rare instances that hint at Pokémon being used for food.
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, the latter of which has historically been viewed as violent.
According to interviews with Ken Sugimori in Nintendo Dream, Basculin was created late in development when they realized there were few new 'standard' fish-like Pokémon in Unova, the only others being Alomomola, Stunfisk, Frillish and Jellicent. 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.
Name origin
Basculin is a combination of bass and masculine.
Bassrao may be a combination of bass and 丈夫 masurao (warrior, referring to its bold, violent nature) or 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.