{{Short description|Genus of fishes}} {{Speciesbox | image = Lepidogalaxias.png | image_caption = Drawings of male (top) and female (bottom) specimens of ''Lepidogalaxias'' | status = EN | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=Morgan, D.L. |author2=Beatty, S. |date=2019 |title=''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides'' |volume=2019 |article-number=e.T11575A123378147 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T11575A123378147.en |access-date=19 November 2021}}</ref> | display_parents = 5 | grandparent_authority = Rosen, 1974 | parent_authority = Mees, 1961 | taxon = Lepidogalaxias salamandroides | authority = Mees, 1961 | range_map = Lepidogalaxias salamandroides Map.jpg }} thumb|Salamanderfish observed in habitat, 2023 '''''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides''''' is a species of small freshwater fish of Western Australia. It is the only member of the family Lepidogalaxiidae and genus ''Lepidogalaxias''. Common names for this fish include '''salamanderfish''' and '''Shannon mudminnow'''. Although it is not a lungfish, it resembles lungfish in several respects, including its ability to survive dry seasons by burrowing into the sand. It is on the IUCN Red List as Endangered.<ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021" />
==Morphology== ''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides'' is small with females measuring up to 7 cm in length. This species has a slender, elongate and cylindrical body. The colour is brownish-green on the upper parts, silver-speckled and blotched on the sides, very pale below, and the fin membranes are transparent. The reddish eyes are fixed, lack eye muscles and are covered by a secondary eyelid, but the fish is able to move its neck in any direction.<ref name="AusMus">{{cite web|url=http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/lsalman.htm|title=Salamanderfish: ''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides'' Mees, 1961|last=McGrouther|first=M. |date=August 2005|work= Find a Fish|publisher=Australian Museum, 2006|access-date=2008-10-26}}</ref><ref name="EBF">{{cite journal|last=Berra |first=Tim M. |author2=Pusey, Bradley J. |date=October 1997|title=Threatened fishes of the world: ''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides'' Mees, 1961 (Lepidogalaxiidae)|journal=Environmental Biology of Fishes|volume= 50|issue= 2 |pages=201–202|issn=1573-5133|doi=10.1023/A:1007322606248|bibcode=1997EnvBF..50..201B |s2cid=21584756 }}</ref><ref>[https://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/LEPIDOGALAXIAS%20SALAMANDROIDES%20MEES%20%C3%BB%20A%20REDESCRIPTION,%20WITH%20NATURAL%20HISTORY%20NOTES.pdf Lepidogalaxias salamandroides Mees - A Redescription, with Natural History Notes]</ref>
==Biology== The salamanderfish spawn in winter when water levels are highest.<ref name=fishes>{{cite web|last1=Bray|first1=Dianne|title=Salamanderfish, Lepidogalaxias salamandroides|url=https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/3918#moreinfo|website=Fishes of Australia|access-date=30 January 2020}}</ref> Males have a uniquely modified anal fin used for internal fertilization. When not in use, it is folded strongly to the left or right and sheathed with a series of greatly enlarged scales.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1989.tb00554.x | doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1989.tb00554.x | title=Internal fertilization in Lepidogalaxias salamandroides Mees (Pisces: Lepidogalaxiidae) | date=1989 | last1=Pusey | first1=B. J. | last2=Stewart | first2=T. | journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume=97 | pages=69–79 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/partpdf/374257 Lepidogalaxias salamandroides Mees — A Redescription, with Natural History Notes]</ref> The females produce 100–400 eggs with a diameter of 1.1–1.3mm, which hatch into bottom-feeder larvae 5.5mm long. Larvae and juveniles grow rapidly to gain fat stores to survive the summer drought period.<ref name=fishes /> Individuals reach up to 5 years of age.
The salamanderfish is carnivorous, mainly feeding on aquatic insect larvae. When their habitat dries up they switch to atmospheric gas exchange via cutaneous respiration. The swim bladder on the other hand is not suitable for aerial respiration.<ref>[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77136865.pdf Implications of climate change on the aestivating Salamanderfish, Lepidogalaxias salamandroides Mees and the Black-stripe Minnow, Galaxiella nigrostriata Shipway]</ref>
==Range and habitat== It has a limited distribution in acidic pools of water in heathland peat flats of southwest Australia, between the Blackwood and Kent Rivers.<ref name="TOL" /> This range is across a distance of 180 kilometres, in an area of Northcliffe, they are common in this region.<ref name="EBF"/> Its habitat is semi-permanent water, small pools and streams that may be high in tannins and acidity (pH 3.0–6.5). They experience a range of water temperatures, daily changes of 16 to 32 degrees Celsius, in pools no deeper than 0.1 metres. The species rests on the bottom of the water using elongated pelvic and rounded caudal fins. These small and shallow pools may contain a population of around 150 individuals, are generally no larger than 600 square metres, and evaporate in the dry seasons. It is also unusual for its ability to survive desiccation by burrowing into sand, a process of aestivation, when the pools it lives in periodically evaporate.<ref name="AusMus" /><ref name="TOL" />
==Taxonomy== The species was first described in 1961 by Gerlof Fokko Mees.<ref>Mees, G. F. 1961. Description of a new fish of the family Galaxiidae from Western Australia. J. Roy. Soc. West. Aust. 44: 33–38.</ref> This author identified the species as belonging to the Galaxiidae, but the relationship to those species was in doubt. ''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides'' was eventually placed among the Osmeriformes as a monotypic arrangement, ''Lepidogalaxias'' (Lepidogalaxiidae), in 1991.<ref name="TOL">{{cite web|url=http://tolweb.org/Lepidogalaxias_salamandroides/15164|title=''Lepidogalaxias_salamandroides''|last=Berra|first=Tim M. |year=1995|work=Version 01|publisher=The Tree of Life Web Project|access-date=2008-10-26}}</ref> This placement has been also challenged, and rightly so, as analyses of molecular data have shown that ''Lepidogalaxias'' is actually an old and isolated lineage basal to all other Euteleostei.<ref name="Li">Li, J., Xia, R., McDowall, R. M. (2010): Phylogenetic position of the enigmatic Lepidogalaxias salamandroides with comment on the orders of lower euteleostean fishes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution vol. 57: 932–936</ref><ref name="Betancur">BETANCUR-R, Ricardo; WILEY, Edward O.; ARRATIA, Gloria (2017): Phylogenetic classification of bony fishes. BMC Evolutionary Biology, vol. 17</ref> The species is contained in the class Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish, and is sometimes given the taxonomic placements as Galaxiidae of the order Salmoniformes.<ref name="AFD" />
It is sometimes named as the mud minnow,<ref name="ITIS">{{ITIS |id=162127 |taxon=''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides'' |accessdate=24 January 2006}}</ref><ref name="FishBaseCommon">{{cite web|url=http://www.fishbase.org/comnames/CommonNamesList.php?ID=4537&GenusName=Lepidogalaxias&SpeciesName=salamandroides&StockCode=4722|title=Common Names of ''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides''|access-date=2009-01-05|work=Common name summary|publisher=FishBase}}</ref> long-finned Galaxias,<ref name="FishBaseCommon"/> scaled galaxias,<ref name="AFD">{{cite web|url=http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/abrs/fauna/details.pl?pstrVol=PISCES2;pstrTaxa=2799;pstrChecklistMode=1|title=''Lepidogalaxias salamandroides'' Mees, 1961|last=Gerald R. Allen, Norbert J. Cross & Douglass F. Hoese|date=27 Jun 2007|work=Australian Faunal Directory|publisher=Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts|access-date=2009-01-04}}</ref><ref name="FishBaseCommon"/> or dwarf pencilfish,<ref name="FishBaseCommon"/> however mud minnow usually refers to ''Galaxiella munda''.<ref name="allenetal2004">{{cite book | last = Allen | first = G.R. |author2=Midgley, S.H. |author3=Allen, M. | title = Field Guide to the Freshwater Fish of Australia | publisher = Western Australian Museum | year = 2002 | location = Perth | page = 109 | isbn = 0-7307-5486-3 }}</ref> A further list of names refer to ''L. salamandroides'' as salamanderfish of Western Australia, West Australian salamanderfish, salamander fish, salamanderfish, and Shannon mudminnow.<ref name="EBF"/><ref name="TOL"/><ref name="FishBaseCommon"/>
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{FishBase_species|genus=Lepidogalaxias|species=salamandroides|year=2005|month=10}}
==External links== {{Wikispecies-inline|Lepidogalaxiidae}}
{{Actinopterygii}} {{Taxonbar|from1=Q1440363|from2=Q15693125|from3=Q15693115|from4=Q22105778|from5=Q22105756}}
Category:Euteleostei Category:Monotypic Actinopterygii genera Category:Freshwater fish of Western Australia Category:Near threatened animals Category:Fish described in 1961 Category:Taxa named by Gerlof Mees Category:Endemic fauna of Southwest Australia