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Firetailed Gudgeon
Hypseleotris galii (Ogilby, 1898)
A female Firetailed Gudgeon from a depth of 0.5m, Lake Parramatta, New South Wales, November 2001.
A Firetailed Gudgeon from a depth of 0.5m, Lake Parramatta, New South Wales, November 2001. View larger image.
Firetailed Gudgeons from the Australian Museum Fish Collection. The male is above and the female below. View larger image.
The Firetailed Gudgeon has a compressed body, two dorsal fins and a small, oblique mouth that reaches to below the front of the eye.
The colouration of his species varies with age, habitat and season. The body is generally grey to bronze with black scale margins. During the breeding season males can be almost black, with intense red-orange fins. There is often a black bar above the pectoral fins base and a faint stripe along the side of the body.
Female Firetailed Gudgeons can be easily distinguished from other species of Hypseleotris by the black area around the vent (glossary) (see upper and lower images). This area is usually brown in males.
Female Firetailed Gudgeons grow to 4cm in length and males grow to 5.5cm.
This species feeds on aquatic invertebrates.
The Firetailed Gudgeon is endemic to (only found in) Australia. It is found in freshwater coastal streams from southern Queensland to southern New South Wales.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1989. Freshwater Fishes of Australia. T.F.H. Publications. Pp. 240.
- Larson, H.K. & D.F. Hoese. 1996 in McDowall, R.M. (Ed) Freshwater Fishes of South-Eastern Australia. Reed Books. Pp. 247.
- Merrick, J.R. & G.E. Schmida. 1984. Australian Freshwater Fishes. Biology and Management. John R. Merrick. Pp. 409.
