Critically Endangered
Spotted handfish
Brachionichthys hirsutus
The spotted handfish is a rare Australian fish in the handfish family, Brachionichthyidae, classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List 2020.
The ray-finned fish
Handfish are unusual, small (up to 120 millimetres (4.7 in) in length), slow-moving, fishes that prefer to 'walk' rather than swim. The females are believed to reach sexual maturity after two to three years at lengths of 75 millimetres (3.0 in) to 80 millimetres (3.1 in).
Range and habitat
The spotted handfish is a benthic fish usually found at depths of 5 metres (16 ft) to 10 metres (33 ft), with overall sightings varying from a minimum of 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) to a maximum of 5 metres (16 ft) deep. It chooses habitats based on the microhabitat features. It tends to prefer complex habitats with features such as depressions and ripple formations filled with shells to avoid predators.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Little is known regarding their diet, but they have been known to prey on small shellfish, shrimp, and polychaete worms in the wild. When captive in aquaria, spotted handfish eat mysid shrimp, amphipods, and small live fish.
Newly hatched handfish have been observed to do quite well on a diet of small amphipods. The species spawns sometime during September and October. B. Hirsutus will select its desired habitat when breeding season occurs.
In crisis
The spotted handfish is a rare Australian fish in the handfish family, Brachionichthyidae, classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List 2020. It has a highly restricted range, being found only in the estuary of River Derwent, Tasmania, and nearby areas, with the main threat to its existence being an invasive species, the Northern Pacific seastar (Asterias amurensis). In 1996, the spotted handfish was the first marine fish to be listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List, and is still classified as such (as of 2021, last assessed 2018).
It has the same classification under Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and as Endangered under Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act 1995.
Spotted handfish is Critically 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 Spotted handfish, Wikidata item Q309745. 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.
