The alpine river galaxias (''Galaxias paucispondylus'') is a galaxiid of the genus '' Galaxias'', found only in mid to high elevation streams flowing from the Southern Alps of New Zealand. It grows to a length of up to 11 cm. Alpine galaxias are speckled olive-green over a light brown base. The single large dorsal fin is rounded, and set back two thirds of the body length, the

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

a little further back. The caudal fin is large and slightly forked. Like all galaxiids it lacks

scale Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

s and has a thick, leathery skin covered with mucus. They are non- diadromous and therefore do not have a marine phase and are not part of the

whitebait Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along coasts, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught using fine-m ...

catch.

References

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NIWA June 2006
alpine galaxias Endemic freshwater fish of New Zealand Fish of the South Island Taxa named by Gerald Stokell alpine galaxias {{Osmeriformes-stub