Swan Galaxias

Interesting Info

• The Swan Galaxias is a freshwater fish species endemic to eastern Tasmania. Today it survives only in a few tiny headwater streams of the Swan and Little Swan River catchments in eastern Tasmania.
• Its body is slender and semi-transparent, with a pale golden-brown colour and scattered dark flecks along its sides, helping it blend with leaf litter and pebbly stream bottoms.
• The Swan Galaxias prefers clear, cool, shallow streams with gravelly beds and plenty of cover from vegetation and woody debris.
• They are very poor swimmers, which makes them vulnerable to being pushed out of their habitat by stronger, introduced fish like trout.
• They feed mostly on small aquatic insects and larvae, especially midges, mayflies, and caddisflies.
• Once widespread in the Swan River catchment, they now survive only in fragmented, isolated populations, many cut off from one another by barriers.
• Breeding takes place in autumn (April–May), when females deposit adhesive eggs among submerged vegetation, roots, or leaf litter in shallow, flowing water.
• Newly hatched larvae are tiny and drift downstream into still pools, where they feed and grow before moving back into faster-flowing headwaters as juveniles.
• Their biggest threats are predation and competition from introduced trout, as well as habitat loss and reduced stream flows.
• The lifespan is short, usually 2–3 years, with most fish breeding only once before they die.