Feature Fish: The Climbing Galaxias
Video credit: Greg Walis, www.youtube.com/pseudechis
Species: Galaxias brevipinnis
Conservation status: Threatened
A Gondwanan fish in Sydney
Several years ago, a Save Manly Dam member and native fish expert (Andrew Lo, UNSW Environmental Economist) spotted something amazing in one of the small tributaries of Manly Dam. The Australian Museum confirmed his suspicion that we had a remarkable and ancient fish living in our local creeks.
The Manly Dam catchment, is home to the most northerly population of climbing fish (Climbing Galaxias) in Australia and they have been living quietly here for an estimated 60 million years, predating the splitting up of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana! They can breathe through their skin and actually climb up steep, wet rocks using their fins.
These fish can only live in cool, unpolluted, freshwater- which is why development and encroachment, near creeks, threatens their precarious existence. Manly Dam is also the very last place in Sydney where it's still (just) possible for humans to swim in clean, freshwater!
Cox’s Gudgeon
Species: Gobiomorphus coxii
Adults feed on aquatic insects and mosquitofish. The adult female lays eggs on rocky surfaces and the male guards and fans the nest until hatching several days later. During upstream migration juveniles are capable of climbing waterfalls and steep dams by rotating their pectoral fins so that the inside surfaces of the fins are pressed against the wall creating suction.
Image: Juvenile Cox's Gudgeon Climbing a waterfall. (First pictures ever taken - courtesy of local legend Keith Byrne).
Firetail Gudgeons filmed congregating at Manly Dam.
Video credit: Greg Walis, www.youtube.com/pseudechis
Firetail Gudgeon
Species: Hypseleotris galii
The Firetail Gudgeon is a small, native Australian fish that occurs in freshwater coastal streams. During the breeding season the fins of males become bright red-orange.