Freshwater Fishes of North-Eastern Australia

Brad Pusey, Mark Kennard, Angela Arthington

• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780643069664
• eBook ISBN: 9780643098954
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Freshwater Fishes of North-Eastern Australia provides details of the ecology, systematics, biogeography and management of 79 species of native fish present in the region. It includes detailed information on their identification, evolutionary history, breeding biology, feeding ecology, movement patterns, macro-, meso- and micro-habitat use, water quality tolerances, conservation status and current threats, as well as environmental flow and management needs.

Based on the results of extensive field surveys and a comprehensive review of existing literature, it is designed to assist environmental practitioners and managers to make informed decisions about future management strategies. It will also encourage a greater research effort into the region's aquatic fauna by providing a comprehensive resource that enables other researchers to adopt a more quantitative and strategic framework for their research.

Joint winner of the 2005 Whitley Medal.

Appendix 1. Fish species composition in rivers of north-eastern Australia

This list includes the known distribution of native, translocated and alien species. A key to the symbols used to denote the origin and distributional status of each species is given below. The basic unit of distribution follows the drainage basin designations used by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy (formerly Queensland Water Resources Commission) and used by Wager [1349]. Drainage basins are grouped according to their generalised location in Queensland. Note that some basins have been split into more biologically meaningful sub-basins (these have been denoted by the original basin number with an additional alphabetic post-script). A numeric key to the drainage basin names and the major rivers and streams within each basin is also given below. Within each drainage basin, major rivers within the same catchment are separated by / (e.g. Fitzroy/Dawson/Comet rivers) and unique catchments (e.g. small coastal streams) are separated by ,. Australian native fish families are arranged in approximate phylogenetic order (after Paxton and Eschmeyer [1041]) and genera and species within each family are listed in alphabetical order. Taxon designations follow Allen et al. [52]. Taxa with strong marine or estuarine affinities, but that are often also found in fresh water, are denoted with * (note that we have not included all such species here, only some members of those families that can be abundant in freshwaters and/or where similarities in morphology may cause confusion in identification (e.g. Chandidae and Gobiidae). Taxa are listed with our preferred common name. Several studies identified some taxa to genus level only (due to uncertainty in specific identity). In cases where this genus has not been recorded in a given basin by any other study, it is listed by the genus name followed by spp.? (e.g. Ambassis spp.?) to denote that one or more members of the genus may actually be present. Due to uncertainty in the identity of synbranchid eels in Queensland, all records of Ophisternon gutturale are listed as such, but other records of taxa within this family are listed as Synbranchidae spp.?. Australian native species translocated to Queensland freshwaters beyond their natural distribution and alien fish species introduced into Queensland freshwaters are also listed (these lists are not exhaustive). Changes in species taxonomy and incorrect identifications have led to records of taxa in certain basins to be incorrect or confusing. We have largely (but not entirely) followed the corrections to fish records in the literature, museums and other taxonomic decisions made by Unmack [1338]. Refer also to the individual species chapters in this book for more information on errors in species distributions in the literature. The distributional information must be treated with caution as during the period where the majority of sampling has been undertaken (i.e. the last 30 years), there has been considerable habitat modification, fish translocations and introductions in many parts of Queensland which may have altered native and alien species distributions and abundances considerably. The information in this appendix does however, accurately reflect the current state of knowledge of the distribution of each species within Queensland. It is likely that future more intensive sampling will...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Origins, structure and classification of fishes
• Key to the native and alien fishes of north-eastern Australia
• Study area, data collection, analysis and presentation
• Ceratodontidae
• Osteoglossidae
• Megalopidae
• Anguillidae
• Clupeidae
• Ariidae
• Plotosidae
• Retropinnidae
• Hemiramphidae
• Belonidae
• Atherinidae
• Melanotaeniidae
• Pseudomugilidae
• Synbranchidae
• Scorpaenidae
• Chandidae
• Centropomidae
• Percichthyidae
• Terapontidae
• Kuhliidae
• Apogonidae
• Toxotidae
• Mugilidae
• Gobiidae
• Eleotridae
• Conclusion: prospects, threats and information gaps
• Glossary of terms used in the text
• Bibliography
• Appendix 1: Fish species composition in rivers of north-eastern Australia
• Appendix 2: Studies undertaken in rivers of north-eastern Australia
• Index