Common Galaxias

Interesting Info

• The Common Galaxias is found throughout Australia, from southern Queensland through New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia, mainly in coastal rivers and estuaries.
• Its body is semi-transparent and golden-brown with scattered dark spots and flecks along the back and sides — the “maculatus” in its name means “spotted.”
• Adults feed mainly on insects, crustaceans, and zooplankton, taking food from both the water column and surface.
• They are strong migrators, capable of moving long distances between estuaries and rivers, and sometimes travelling upstream into small creeks.
• The species is highly adaptable, living in habitats from tidal estuaries to cool headwater streams, although it depends on open migration routes to complete its life cycle.
• In Tasmania and New Zealand, the seasonal migration of juveniles is the basis of the whitebait fishery, where swarms of young galaxias are netted for food.
• Breeding occurs in autumn (March–May), when adults migrate downstream into estuaries and lay eggs in vegetation just above the high-tide line.
• The eggs remain out of water but damp until the next spring tide, when they hatch as larvae and are washed out to sea.
• Larvae spend 4–6 months in the ocean before returning to rivers as tiny juveniles, forming seasonal whitebait runs.
• The lifespan is usually 1–3 years, with most fish breeding once before dying.