Purple Spotted Gudgeon or Northern Trout Gudgeon

Mogurnda mogurnda

General information: These fish are travellers and climbers. They are the fish that is usually found its way the most distance upstream in a creek. They are found in shallow rocky places and in aquatic vegetation and shallow backwaters. They breed in a similar manner to other gudgeons with the male cleaning a patch on a rock, log or other hard surface. The female lays a batch of small sticky eggs stuck to the hard surface then the male fans, cleans and guards them until they hatch. Their natural diet consists of small crustaceans, insects, worms, small fishes and some plant material. They are reported to grow to 120mm in size. The water quality in the places these fish came from has been measured and recorded on the ANGFA database, maximum and minimum and averages are listed as a guide. Temperatures from 19 to 35 average 27 deg C , pH from 6 to 7.4 average 6.5 , Hardness approx 91 ppm , Alkalinity approx 70 ppm.

Cultivation notes : They are an easy fish to keep in an aquarium as long as it has lids. This species has a tendency to jump out of their aquarium if the lid is left open. They can grow quite large in captivity, up to 200 mm and have an unfriendly disposition toward other fish and are best kept with fish the same size or larger. They are easily bred by having a group of about a dozen in a suitable aquarium with hiding places and some plants. A pair will eventually form and drive the others away which should then be removed. The pair can left in there and will produce eggs regularly. Fry are easy to raise using small live foods and frozen prepared foods. These fish dont do well on flake food.

Distribution : They occur across the top of Australia in WA, NT and Qld as well as Southern New Guinea.

Selling details : Sold individually at 3 centimetres total length.

Reference: Allen G.R., Midgley S.H. and Allen M. (2002) "Freshwater Fishes of Australia". ANGFA database - http://db.angfa.org.au