Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeon fish spotted in Australian waters

The Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeon is a little Australian fish with a big story of survival.

David MillsNational Environment Reporter

@DavidMills1972

2 min read

March 28, 2021 - 6:00AM

News Corp Australia Network

The Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeon (Mogurnda adspersa) is the ultimate survivor. Picture: Doug Gimesy

Animals

Don't miss out on the headlines from Animals. Followed categories will be added to My News.

This is both a story about a little fish in a big pond, and the one that got away – twice.

It’s a tiddler. Adults tip the scales at about eight grams and grow to around nine centimetres.

But judge not by size.

The Purple Spotted Gudgeon is a miracle.

Its 2019 discovery in Third Reedy Lake, near Kerang, northern Victoria, marked the second time this charismatic cutie has come back from the dead. Declared regionally extinct in the Twentieth Century – one of many native fish species wiped out since 1788 – it was rediscovered in the early 1990s, only to be deemed officially extinct again in 1998.

Its most recent rediscovery happened by accident, two days before the lake was set to be drained.

The Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeon (Mogurnda adspersa). This specimen was measured and released back. Picture: Doug Gimesy

Freshwater Ecologist from Austral research and consulting, Dion Lervais. Picture: Doug Gimesy

Peter Rose, Project Manager, North Catchment Management Authority (NCCMA), wades through the shallows of Third Reedy Lake marsh to set fkye nets along the edges. Picture: Doug Gimesy

“We weren’t looking for it,” environmental scientist Dion Lervais, who made the find, told News Corp. “Because it had been listed as regionally extinct it wasn’t on the list to be looked for. These guys live up in as much cover as they can find. The hardest bit of habitat, up under a rocky nook or a bit of vegetation, that’s where they are.”

The discovery prompted further searches in 100 sites, with dozens more eventually found.

“It’s a beautiful specimen; pretty striking when you pull it up in a net. It’s pretty distinctive,” Mr Lervais said.

Peter Rose, project manager with Victoria’s Northern Central Catchment Management Authority, said the prognosis for the future local survival of the Purple Spotted Gudgeon was now good, thanks in part to recent funding for a captive breeding program. (Related species flourish in other parts of Australia.)

The Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeon is a tiddler with a tale to tell. Picture: Doug Gimesy

As part of a program to start a captive breeding program for the fish, members from North Catchment Management Authority, Austral research and consulting and volunteers from fishing groups set and checked traps. Picture: Doug Gimesy

Volunteer Gary Sturdy from Native Fish Australia helps sets a fyke net. Third Reedy Lake, Kerang, Victoria. Picture: Doug Gimesy

Drones capture ecologists and volunteers at work. Picture: Doug Gimesy

With its distinctive shimmery pattern, the Purple Spotted Gudgeon made for a “great tank fish,” Mr Rose said.

“People choose goldfish and other exotic fish because they don’t know how beautiful our native Australian species are. This species is one of six wetland specialist fish, and they’re all quite attractive. They’re just so overlooked and unknown.”

Doug Gimesy’s photographs shows the dedication of the humans involved in the painstaking work to sustain this little Aussie battler.

“It really takes partnerships between government, community groups, researchers and passionate people to bring these species back,” Mr Rose said.

“In the region I work in, there are only 13 of 22 (native) species left, and of those six are listed as threatened. We’re starting from a low baseline, but there’s a lot of potential in our system at least to recover these fish. Things are looking up.”