The freshwater mullet (''Pseudomyxus capensis'') is a species of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family

Mugilidae The mullets or grey mullets are a family (Mugilidae) of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, and some species in fresh water. Mullets have served as an important source of food in Mediterranean Europe since R ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Distribution

The freshwater mullet is endemic to South Africa where is distribution extends from

Kwazulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

, the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

to the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

, from

Kosi Bay Kosi Bay is a series of four interlinked lakes in the Maputaland area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Ecology The lakes form part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The closest town is Manguzi, some away from it. K ...

to the

Breede River The Breede River ( af, Breederivier), also known as Breë River, is a river in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Travelling inland north from the city of Cape Town, the river runs in a west to east direction. The surrounding western mou ...

drainage.

Habitat and biology

This species is found in estuaries and the juveniles need freshwater reaches for growth and safety. The adults

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: ...

at sea, after reaching sexual maturity in estuaries. The juveniles move into the estuaries and up into rivers in the late southern winter or early spring and then stay there for seven years for females and four years for males. They feed on benthic

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

and small invertebrates over muddy substrates.

Conservation

The freshwater mullet's range and population have been impacted by the damming of streams and the introduction of alien fish.

Taxonomy

The freshwater mullet was previously assigned to '' Myxus'', but genetic studies in 2012 found it to be more closely related to the

Fringelip mullet ''Crenimugil crenilabis'', the fringelip mullet, is a member of the ray-finned fish family Mugilidae The mullets or grey mullets are a family (Mugilidae) of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, and some sp ...

than to the

Sand grey mullet The sand grey mullet (''Myxus elongatus'') is a species of mullet found in coastal marine waters of Australia. Description As general mullet, fish they have a terminal mouth with thick lips, 2 dorsal fins, a lunate homocercal caudal fin (upp ...

, necessitating the erection of the

monospecific In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Pseudomyxus'' for this species.Durand, J.-D., W.-J. Chen, K.-N. Shen, C. Fu, & P. Borsa. 2012. Genus-level taxonomic changes implied b mitochondrial phylogeny of grey mullets (Teleostei: Mugilidae). Comptes Rendus Biologies, 335: 687-697.

References

Myxus Freshwater fish of South Africa Fish described in 1836 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Mugiliformes-stub