Collections
Specimens in jars. Photo: Mark McGrouther.
The fish research collections numbers about 635,000 adult specimens, (including 11,302 type specimens, 4,726 type lots) and over 1,000,000 larval fish specimens. The collection also includes smaller collections of frozen tissues, otoliths, x-rays, skins, skeletons and cleared and stained specimens. The majority of the collection has been initially fixed in 10% formaldehyde and transferred to 70% ethyl alcohol for long term storage. We are currently increasing the size of our frozen and alcohol fixed tissue collections which are used in genetic research. The collection includes a Regional Larval Fish Archive, holding larvae from fishery-relevant studies, it currently holds over 300,000 larvae from over 8000 samples.
Data for all these specimens are fully retrievable using Texpress databases. A summary of the collection data are available online.
The emphasis of the Australian Museum's Fish Collection is on Australian fishes, Indo-Pacific reef fishes, deepsea fishes, larval fishes, gobioid fishes and freshwater fishes of New South Wales.
We will consider the deposition of any specimens or collections into the Fish Collection for future research based access (of particular interest are fishes from New South Wales but also Australia wide and international specimens are of interest.)
The Fish Section houses the Australian Museum Research Library books on fishes, and along with reprints, is one of the largest collections of its kind in Australia. It is available for use to students and the public by appointment with Mark on 02 9320 6262.
Our staff have extensive experience in all forms of fish survey work. We can provide fish identifications as well as information on fish taxonomy, biology and distributions.
Larval Fish Archive Procedures Manual in PDF format (161k)
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