Endangered
Pedder galaxias
Galaxias pedderensis
The Pedder galaxias is an Australian freshwater fish.
Appearance
A small greenish-brown fish, off-white to silvery belly, a profuse irregular and highly variable pattern of alternating off-white and brownish contrasting bands extending into the base of the fins and breaking up into fine spots on the lower part of the sides.
Range and habitat
Originally recorded only in Lake Pedder and inflowing streams, after the construction of the Huon–Serpentine dam in 1972 (the "new" Lake Pedder), its range expanded initially into Lake Gordon and Wedge River. The species survives in two translocated populations outside its original range, one at Lake Oberon in the Western Arthurs mountain range and one at a modified water supply dam near Strathgordon. Before the construction of the new lake, this species preferred Lake Pedder itself that was quite shallow surrounded by white sandy beaches and small rooted aquatic vegetation as well as in swamps and low velocity waters with abundant instream organic debris and overhanging terrestrial vegetation.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Male genital papilla narrow, whereas female are broad and rounded, most noticeable during breeding season. 150 to 1,200 eggs averaging 1.9 mm to 2.3 mm in diameter when water hardened. Spawning reported to occur in spring (October) at water temperatures of 6.7 to 7.5 °C.
In crisis
It is considered to be extinct in the wild since 2005 by the EPBC Act, and was originally found only in Lake Pedder in Tasmania. Extinct in the wild status for the EPBC Act since 2005. Listed as endangered by the IUCN since 2019.
Pedder galaxias is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Pedder galaxias, Wikidata item Q1097860. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
