Galaxias tantangara (Stocky Galaxias)

Family: Galaxidae (Galaxiid)

The Stocky Galaxias is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ in Australia under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and is listed as a Priority Species under the Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032

SPRAT profile: https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=87879

Size: Small fish; grows to 103mm long and 13g in weight, but is more commonly 75-85 mm long.

Description: Virtually indistinguishable visually from Mountain Galaxias (G. olidus). Body is predominantly dark olive-brown on the back and upper sides above the lateral line, becoming lighter to cream ventrally. Individuals possess many dark brown to almost black spots and flecks that may vary in size, found along the body, head and snout. The fins are translucent dusky grey and the gill covers are translucent. It has a long anal fin, short nostrils and an upper jaw that is slightly longer than the lower jaw.

Location: Stocky Galaxies is a recently described species (Raadik 2014) and is name ‘tantangara’ comes from its only known location the small alpine stream draining from Mount Tantangara.