Mogurnda adspersa
Description
Southern Purple Spotted gudgeon are a native freshwater fish distributed within coastal drainages along the east coast of Queensland to northern NSW. It is found in slow moving waters of creeks, rivers, wetlands and swamps where it prefers to live in the deeper habitats. They are also found in the Murray-Darling Basin and inland NSW but due to habitat loss have declined to the point of extinction in these locations.
The Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeon grow to a length of about 15cm and are named after the red/purple spots along the length of the body. They are a robust fish with a large head and a small mouth and have a distinctive yellow colouration to their fins. Female gudgeon lay their eggs, which are adhesive, on logs, rocks and aquatic vegetation.
Similar to Fire tail gudgeon, males then guard the eggs from predation and fan the eggs with their fins to keep them oxygenated. The eggs take a little longer to hatch than Fire-tails. After being laid the fry hatch after 3 - 9 days dependent on temperature.
Adaptations
- Males have an elaborate courtship display
- Slow-moving ambush predator that prey upon small fish, aguatic macroinvertebrates, worms and tadpoles
- Females lay a single batch of eggs varying in size from 300 - 1300 eggs
- Spawn in summer when water temperatures reach 20 degrees celcius
- High tolerance to poor water quality
Interesting facts
A very closely related species, the Northern Purple Spotted Gudgeon (Mogurnda mogurnda), are distributed across the northern parts of Australia including Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia as well as southern Papua New Guinea.