Common Galaxias, Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns 1842)
Common Galaxias, Galaxias maculatus. Source: Neil Armstrong. License: All rights reserved
A slender, elongate olive-grey to amber Galaxias with irregular darker spots or blotches on the back and sides, silvery-olive to white eyes, gill cover and belly, and translucent fins. The species has a small mouth, a long, slender caudal peduncle with a slightly forked tail, and the dorsal and anal fins are positioned opposite each other near the rear of the body.
Video of Common Galaxias stranded in pools left by high spring tides in the lower reaches of the Thurra River in Croajingolong National Park, Victoria.
Common Galaxias and Pygmy Perch (Nannoperca) in Darlot Creek, Western Victoria, April 2017.
Video of Common Galaxias in Western Australia.
Video of Common Galaxias embryos.
Video of Common Galaxias whitebait in New Zealand.
Common Galaxias, Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns 1842)
More Info
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Distribution |
In Australian waters, Common Galaxias inhabit temperate coastal flowing streams and rivers east and south of the Great Dividing Range, from Brisbane, Queensland, to Albany, Western Australia, including on Flinders Island and King Island, Bass Strait, and low elevations in Tasmania; also the Lord Howe Province in the Tasman Sea. In the Murray-Darling Basin the species is known from Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert near the Murray River mouth to about Mannum on the Lower Murray and streams of the Mt Lofty Ranges in South Australia. The species is thought to have been introduced into the Wimmera, Loddon and Campaspe river catchments in Victoria. The species has one of the world's largest natural distributions for a freshwater fish. It is known from New Zealand (Chatham Is., North Is., South Is.), Argentina (Tierra del Fuego, Rio Negro), Chile, and the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). Common Galaxias inhabit a wide range of environments, usually in still or slow-flowing waters such as streams, rivers and lakes within a short distance of the sea. The species can tolerate salinities up to 50 ppt and may also occur in brackish streams. Some populations are landlocked while others are diadromous, migrating downstream to spawn in estuaries. |
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Features |
Dorsal fin 9-15; Anal fin 13-21; Pectoral fin 10-15. Body elongate, slender; depth at vent 9.0-14% SL; head small, bluntly pointed, not depressed; snout blunt and rounded; mouth small reaching back to front of eyes; jaws equal in length; eyes relatively large, diameter 17-31% HL; caudal peduncle long and slender. Scales absent. Fins thin, membranous, caudal fin emarginate to slightly forked, anal fin origin directly below dorsal fin origin. |
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Size |
Maximum size 19 cm TL; usually to around 8-12 cm TL |
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Colour |
Body a translucent grey-olive to amber, with irregular greenish-grey blotches or spots on back and upper sides, belly, gill covers and eyes a bright silvery-olive to silvery-white, fins largely unpigmented. |
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Feeding |
Feeds on a variety of aquatic and terrestrial insects, and crustaceans, taken from the bottom and throughout the water column. |
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Biology |
laying their eggs amongst dense vegetation. The sexes are separate and fertilisation is external. Adults migrate downstream to spawn in estuaries. Females spawn with a few hundred to several thousand tiny adhesive eggs (1 mm diameter) onto on dense terrestrial vegetation either in flooded banks of streams or estuaries flooded by the high spring tides. When the tides recede, the eggs survive and develop aerially in these moist environments for two to four weeks until the next spring tides. On hatching, the larvae (about 7 mm long) are washed out to sea and develop in the open ocean for 4-6 months. They eventually migrate back to shore, and the following spring, unpigmented juveniles known as whitebait return to the rivers and streams where they hatched. Land-locked individuals migrate upstream to spawn in the tributaries during late winter to early spring when water levels rise. After hatching, the larvae are washed downstream into lakes, usually developing amongst near-shore vegetation. Individuals mature after about one year, and usually die after spawning. |
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Fisheries |
Commonly known as whitebait, juveniles Galaxias species form the basis of a commercial and recreational fishery in New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. Although no longer fished commercially in Australia, whitebait were commercially fished in Tasmania until the 1970's. |
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Remarks |
The Common Galaxias has the largest natural distribution of any freshwater fish species. |
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Species Citation |
Mesites maculatus Jenyns 1842, Zool. voyage H. M. S. Beagle, 1832 to 1836, Part 4 Fishes: 119, Pl. 22 (figs. 4, 4a). Type locality: fresh water brook on Hardy Peninsula, Tierra del Fuego and Río Santa Cruz, Patagonia. |
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Author |
Gomon, M.F. & Bray, D.J. 2021 |
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Resources |
Common Galaxias, Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns 1842)
References
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Cadwallader, P.L. & G.N. Backhouse. 1983. A guide to the freshwater fish of Victoria. Government Printers. Melbourne. 249 pp.
Castelnau, F.L. de 1872. Contribution to the ichthyology of Australia. 1. The Melbourne fish market. Proceedings of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria 1: 29-242 1 pl. (described as Galaxias versicolor, Galaxias cylindricus, Galaxias amaenus and Galaxias delicatulus)
Chapman, A., Morgan, D.L., Beatty, S.J. & Gill, H.S. 2006. Variation in life history of land-locked lacustrine and riverine populations of Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns 1842) in Western Australia. Environmental Biology of Fishes 77: 21–37.
Chapman, A., Morgan, D.L. & Gill, H.S. 2009. Description of the larval development of Galaxias maculatus in landlocked lentic and lotic systems in Western Australia. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 43: 563–569.
Chessman, B.C. & Williams, W.D. 1975. Salinity tolerance and osmoregulatory ability of Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns) (Pisces, Salmoniformes, Galaxiidae). Freshwater Biology 5: 135-140.
Günther, A. 1866. Catalogue of the Fishes of the British Museum. Catalogue of the Physostomi, containing the families Salmonidae, Percopsidae, Galaxidae, Mormyridae, Gymnarchidae, Esocidae, Umbridae, Scombresocidae, Cyprinodontidae, in the collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 6 368 pp. (described as Galaxias krefftii and Galaxias punctatus)
Hale, R., Downes, B.J. & Swearer, S.E. 2008. Habitat selection as a source of inter-specific differences in recruitment of two diadromous fish species.Freshwater Biology 53: 2145–2157. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2008.02037.x
Hale, R. & S.E. Swearer. 2008. Otolith microstructural and microchemical changes associated with settlement in the diadromous fish Galaxias maculatus. Marine Ecology Progress Series 354: 229-234.
Hale, R., B.J. Downes & S.E. Swearer. 2008. Habitat selection as a source of inter-specific differences in recruitment of two diadromous fish species. Freshwater Biology 53: 2145-2157.
Hale, R., S.E. Swearer & B.J. Downes. 2009. Is settlement at small spatial scales by diadromous fish from the Family Galaxiidae likely to be passive or active in a small coastal river? Marine and Freshwater Research 60(9): 971-975.
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Hickford, M.J.H., Cagnon, M. & Schiel, D.R. 2010. Predation, vegetation and habitat-specific survival of terrestrial eggs of a diadromous fish, Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns, 1842). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 385: 66–72.
Hicks, A., N.C. Barbee, S.E. Swearer & B.J. Downes. 2010. Estuarine geomorphology and low salinity requirement for fertilisation influence spawning site location in the diadromous fish, Galaxias maculatus. Marine and Freshwater Research 61: 1252-1258.
Hicks, A.S., G.P. Closs & S.E. Swearer. 2010. Otolith microchemistry of two amphidromous galaxiids across an experimental salinity gradient: A multielement approach for tracking diadromous migrations. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 394: 86-97.
Jenyns, L. 1842. Part 4 Fishes. pp. 97-172 pls 21-29 in Darwin, C. (ed.) The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle under the command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. during the years 1832 to 1836. London : Smith, Elder & Co. (described as Mesites attenuatus and M. maculatus)
Jung, C.A., N.C. Barbee & S.E. Swearer 2009. Post-settlement migratory behaviour and growth-related costs in two diadromous fish species, Galaxias maculatus and Galaxias brevipinnis. Journal of Fish Biology 75(3): 503-515.
Klunzinger, C.B. 1872. Zur Fische-fauna von Süd Australien. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 38(1): 17-47 pl. 2 (described as Galaxias obtusus)
Krefft, G. 1868. Descriptions of some new Australian freshwater fishes. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1867: 942-944 (described as Galaxias waterhousei)
Lintermans, M. 2007. Fishes of the Murray-Darling Basin : an introductory guide. Canberra : Murray-Darling Basin Commission, 157 pp.
Macleay, W.J. 1881. Descriptive catalogue of the fishes of Australia. Part 4. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 1 6(2): 202-387 (described as Galaxias nebulosa)
McCoy, F. 1867. On the recent zoology and palaeontology of Victoria. pp. 309–330 in, Intercolonial Exhibition of Australia, Melbourne. 1866–67. Melbourne : Blundell. (described as Galaxias pseudoscriba)
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McDowall, R.M. 1972. The species problem in freshwater fishes and the taxonomy of diadromous and lacustrine populations of Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns). J. R. Soc. N. Z. 2: 325–367.
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