mudfish are a specialised type of galaxiid, adapted for living in oxygen-poor swampy waters (including ephemeral ones). They can aestivate underground like lungfish when the pools they live in dry up. Very cool fish.
Because mudfish are nocturnal and spend the day buried as much as possible they can be difficult to display effectively. Here there is a low barrier at the front of the tank filled with sphagnum moss in which the fish hide during the day - they do not seem to mind that they are completely visible, so long as they are amongst the moss. During the night they swim up out of the sphagnum and roam the tank.
27 September 2012
