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The Freshwater Fishes
of Australia 1
Gunther Schmida
Gunther Schmida
and protected by copyright.
The Freshwater Fishes
of Australia 1
Lampreys to Garfish
Gunther Schmida
Southern Saratoga Scleropages leichardti - Dawson River - C – Qld.
Murray Cod Maccullochella p. peeli
Freshwater Sawfish - Pristis microdon 100 cm - Adelaide River - NT
Contents
Preface
Australian Lungfish
Southern Graylings & Smelts
Acknowledgements
Saratogas
Galaxias & Salamanderfish
Introduction
Freshwater & One-gilled Eels
Longtoms & Gars
Lampreys
Herrings & kin
Glossary
Sharks, Rays & Sawfishes
Fork-tailed & Eel-tailed Catfishes
Further reading
Preface
Freshwater fish have been a much neglected part of
Australia’s fauna for many years.
Only the species appreciated by anglers, food
connoisseurs or keepers of ornamental fish were
better known.
Even today most people consider freshwater fish to
be drab and boring by comparison to marine
species.
They are neither, and it is hoped that this series of
e-books will bury this myth once and for all.
Australian freshwater fish, especially the ones
suitable for fish keeping, have been my passion for
over 40 years.
Almost as long ago as I decided to keep, breed and
study Australian freshwater fish, I also commenced
photographing them in the best possible way.
As this is not possible in the wild for various
reasons, all images on these pages were taken in
as natural settings as possible, in aquaria meeting
the requirements of the many species.
Freshwater fish literature was scarce back then and
most wildlife books ignored these aquatic creatures
altogether, or did not show them in a natural way.
Things have changed for the better since, but this
e-book is the first where the author can claim to
actually have had at least some first hand
experience with all living subjects shown on these
pages.
Lesser Salmon Catfish Neoarius graeffei - 40 cm SL - Brisbane River - SE-Qld.
Even so it would not have been possible to provide the current knowledge
contained herein without the detailed work of many scientists and
dedicated amateurs in this field, who were prepared to share their
knowledge.
This volume deals with some of the largest, most ancient and most
interesting fishes in Australia’s diverse freshwater habitats.
It does not deal with ‘fishing’ or ‘fish keeping’ however, even though quite a
lot was learned from these activities.
It is designed to be up-dated and up-graded whenever new information or
better images become available .
Acknowledgements:
No work of this kind could ever
be undertaken without the help
of many other like-minded and
generous people. For sharing
their knowledge, providing
specimens and assisting in the
field I would like to very much
thank everyone involved.
Special thanks are due to:
Steve & Aimee Brooks
Adrian & Fran Dawson
Dr. Bruce Hansen
Leo O’Reilly and
Dave & Robyn Wilson
As well as:
Terry & Michelle Adams
Glynn Aland
Sean Alanson
Dr Gerald Allen
Neil Armstrong
Gary Backhouse
Steve Baines
Dr. Chris Barlow
Glenn Briggs
Dr. Danny Brown
Andrew Bruce
Dr. Philip Cadwallader
Keryn Cobden
Eng Chua
Rob Carroll
John Davies
Peter Ford
Dr. Dean Gilligan
Peter Graham
Dr. Mike Hammer
Dr. Brett Herbert
Dr. Doug Hoese
Charlotte Jenkins
Brendan Johnson
Lawrie Kirk
Ken Kirkness
Peter Kraus
Bob Kroll
Dr. Helen Larson
Andrew Lo
Ray Leggett
Glenn Leiper
Brian McGregor
Charles Niautou
Gavin Rich
Dr. John Paxton
Robert Pulvirenti
Dean Sampson
Bruce Sambell
Ken Shaw
Paul Smith
Gary Stephenson
Peter Unmack
Adrian Tappin
Graham Walker
and Michael J. Young
Honey Blue-eyes Pseudomugil mellis - Sparring males - 3 cm SL
Southern Saratoga Scleropages leichardti snatching an insect from the water’s surface.
Many thanks are also due to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority,
NSW , Queensland & Victorian Fishery Departments, ERIS in the
Northern Territory and the many scientists who published the results
of their research over many years.
Additional thanks are due to all who offered suggestions and pointed
out errors, especially Glenn Leiper who proof read all.
All distribution maps are courtesy of
Dave Wilson.
Introduction
Apart from Antarctica, Australia is considered to
be the driest continent on earth and it is the
smallest. A huge island that until fairly recently
was connected with New Guinea and is located
on the same tectonic plate which separated from
the other landmasses some 50 million years ago,
then drifted slowly to its present position on the
planet.
It is therefore not surprising that both have similar
wildlife, especially freshwater fishes.
Compared to other continents with tropical or mild
climates, Australia’s fish fauna can only be called
impoverished.
Depending on what is considered to be a
freshwater fish, there are only between 200 and
300 species in Australian freshwater habitats and
only four are believed to be primary freshwater
fishes, species which evolved in freshwater.
The reminder are descendants of marine fishes
which adapted to a permanent life here and are
therefore called secondary freshwater fishes.
Some species still move between these different
habitats to reproduce.
Although the Australian freshwater fish fauna does
not consist of many different species, these are
none the less interesting.
There are three main groups.
The somewhat eel-like lampreys are jawless, and
believed to be very primitive fishes.
Sharks, rays and sawfish have skeletons
consisting of cartilage, whilst in all other fishes this
is made of bone.
3 year old Queensland Lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri 40 cm TL - Captive reared from egg
Fishes with bony skeletons are the most diverse group of all backboned
animals.
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Lungfishes
Order: Dipteriformes
Lungfishes are an
ancient order which
first evolved about 400
million years ago and
also occurred in marine
environments all
around the world.
From about 340 million
years ago onwards
they only lived in
freshwater.
The Queensland
Lungfish is believed to
be the oldest survivor,
dating back unchanged
for over 100 million
years.
There are six living
species, four in Africa,
one in South America
and the Australian one.
Australian Lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri adult - Brisbane River - Qld.
Queensland Lungfish
Family: Ceratodontidae
Type locality: Burnett River - SE-Qld.
Genus:Neoceratodus
Species: forsteri (Krefft 1870
Max. Size: 1.8 metres - 40 kg
Burnett River
Mary River
Brisbane & Pine Rivers
Coomera River
SE-Qld.
Queensland Lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri - 70 cm TL - Mary River - SE-Qld.
Habitat - Brisbane River
Queensland Lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri
Introduction:
The aboriginal population of the
Wide-Bay district in SE-Qld.
knew the fish as Djellah (or
Djelleh) and Theebine.
The European settlers called it
the Burnett River Salmon, not
for its taste but rather for the
colour of its flesh.
It was settler William McCord
from Coonambula Station, near
the town of Mundubberra on the
Burnett River, who in 1869 sent
two salted carcasses of lungfish
to his cousin William Forster,
then a minister in the colony of
NSW. Forster passed the fish
on to Gerard Krefft, the curator
of the museum in Sydney.
This was possibly done because
Krefft had doubted earlier
reports about such a creature.
When he saw the fish, Krefft
realized immediately that they
were something special.
He also recognized the
similarities between the tooth
plates of his newly acquired
creatures with fossil tooth plates
described as Ceratodus by
Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz
32 years earlier - who had
believed them to be shark teeth.
Krefft adopted the genetic name
Ceratodus for the Australian find
and named it in honour of
William Forster, but despite its
large scales, believed it to be an
amphibian - which are
scaleless.
In the description he also
included details which must
have originated from the
supplier of the specimens and
do not apply to lungfish at all,
but rather to the Saratoga,
Scleropages leichardti, a
species not occurring in the
Burnett River, but rather in the
Fitzroy River catchment to the
north.
The description of the Australian
Lungfish created a lot of interest
in the scientific community of
the time which was looking for
the “missing link” in the chain of
evolution , a link between
aquatic fish and four-legged
land animals.
For 30 years the anatomy of
lungfish was investigated
thoroughly, and they were
deemed to be fish at the
beginning of that time.
One year old and 23 cm long. Growth has slowed down, but is still
much faster then originally assumed.
In contrast to the other species,
the Australian one has one lung
only, which is basically a
modified swim bladder.
It also looks quite different.
The other species are more
eel-like , their pectoral and
ventral fins reduced to thin
appendages.
Their scales are also not as
obvious as in the Australian
species, rather they are deeply
embedded in the outer skin
layer.
There were once many
Australian species and they
lived in a much wetter
environments all over the
continent. Some were much
larger then the surviving
species.
In recent times more research
has been undertaken in
Australia to establish where this
interesting creature really
belongs in the animal kingdom.
Queensland Lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri
Features:
Lungfish can hardly be confused with any other
Australian freshwater fish. The body is cigar shaped
with fleshy, paddle-like pectoral and ventral fins. A finseam surrounds the entire muscular tail, very much like
in an eel or eel-tailed catfish. The top of the skull and
almost the entire body are covered with large bony
scales. The fish is covered with mucus which makes it
very slimy and therefore difficult to handle during
rescue operations.
Distribution:
Naturally occurring in the Burnett & Mary Rivers and
their tributaries in SE-Queensland.
They may also be native to the Brisbane River system,
but as fish from the Mary were introduced there, as well
as into some other rivers, in the late 19th century, the
origin of the Brisbane River fish is somewhat unclear.
Today they still do occur in the Pine River, as well as
Enoggera Creek, and their presence in the Coomera
was recently confirmed.
Introductions to the Logan and Condamine Rivers have
failed.
Habitat:
Usually found in the larger and deeper sections of the
rivers they inhabit, but moving to shallower parts with
submerged aquatic vegetation to feed.
As they also seem to be quite successful in dams,
water conditions may be secondary.
In most areas the water is rather hard and neutral to
alkaline but they are known to occur in at least one
stream with very soft and acidic water.
Temperatures & water conditions:
15 to 30°C. Hardness & pH values not critical as long as
they are not extreme.
Sensory pores on snout and the head of a lungfish
Diet:
Omnivorous, feeds on aquatic plants, mussels, shrimp & crayfish. Although not
fast enough to catch moving fish , sleeping ones have been eaten in
aquariums at night. The sense of smell is well developed. Recent studies have
shown that they are also capable of detecting minute electric currents emitted by
live prey.
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Glossary:
Further reading:
Allen, G.R., S.H. Midgley, M. Allen (2002) Field Guide to
the Freshwater Fishes of Australia, WA Museum, Perth.
Allen, G. R., (1989) Freshwater Fishes of Australia , TFH
Publ., New Jersey.
Allen, G. R., (1982) A Field guide to the Inland Fishes of
Western Australia, WA Museum, Perth.
Cadwallader, P.L., G.N. Backhouse (1983) A Guide to the
freshwater Fishes of Victoria, Victorian Government
Printing Office, Melbourne.
Herbert, B., J. Peeters (1995) Freshwater Fishes of Far
north Queensland, DPI Qld., Brisbane.
Larsen, H.K, K.C. Martin (1989) Freshwater Fishes of the
Northern Territory, NT Museum, Darwin.
Leggett, R., J.R.Merrick (!987) Australian Native Fishes for
Aquariums, J.R. Merrick Publ., Artamon.
Lintermans, M. (2007) Fishes of the Murray-Darling Basin,
MDB Commission, Canberra.
McDonald, R. Ed. (1996) Freshwater Fishes of SouthEastern Australia, Reed books, Chatswood.
Merrick, G.R., G.E. Schmida (1984) Australian Freshwater
Fishes – Biology & Management, J.R. Merrick, North Ryde.
Pusey, B., M. Kennard, A. Arthington (2004) Freshwater
Fishes of North-Eastern Australia, CSIRO Publ.,
Collingwood.
Schmida, G. (2000) Rainbowfish, Barron’s Educational
Series, Inc., Hauppage, NY.
Northern Saratoga Scleropages jardinii sub-adult 30 cm SL
Adelaide River - NT
Schmida, G. (2008) A Wild Australia Guide - Freshwater Fishes,
Steve Parish Publ., Archerfield.
Wager, R., P. Unmack (2000) Fishes of the Lake Eyre catchment of central
Australia, DPI Qld., Brisbane.
This is a work in progress.
Changes may be made to the
overall design before release.
The condensed version
Is available in all good book stores,
or by contacting the above e-mail address.