The other mudfish

Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 16

The other mudfish

brown mudfish there are two other species: the black mudfish (Neochanna diversus) found only in the northern half of the North Island and the Canterbury mudfish (N. burrowsius) known, as the name suggests, only from that region. All three are members of the galaxiid family, the grouping that provides New Zealand with its whitebait species. All mudfish, unlike the other galaxiids, either have their pelvic fins much reduced or absent. Canterbury mudfish have small pelvic fins and are most likely in a transitional evolutionary state between the majority of the galaxiids and the other mudfish. Brown and black mudfish have no pelvic fins. Black mudfish differ from their brown cousins in having conical rather than chisel-shaped teeth. They are also much ; N ADDITION TO the better known

darker and have smaller mouths and larger eyes. The larvae of mudfish tend to be open living but they become more secretive and cryptic once they reach about 30 mm long. They grow to around 90 to 120 mm long although brown mudfish up to 175 mm have been recorded. Like other galaxiids, mudfish tend to be opportunistic carnivores, eating most aquatic organisms and will take terrestrial insects from the surface of the water.