Brief Description |
In 1898 the harbourmaster of Hokitika, Captain George Bignell, sent Samuel Drew at the Museum a kerosene tin half full of mud, the consistency of pea soup, containing several brown mudfish. Drew wrote a column in the Wanganui Chronicle (27 June) on these peculiar fishes on display in the Museum's aquarium. This mounted specimen is almost certainly one of these, deceased.
Mudfishes are unique to New Zealand, inhabiting wetlands and able to survive buried in the soil if these should temporarily dry up. They are tubular fishes with fins at the rear of the body, resembling small eels.
This mudfish has been mounted on blue painted back board, a stuffed skin with with one glass eye. The Natural History Numerical Catalogue Register identifies this specimen as from "Family 29 Galaxidae. / 1575 Mudfish Neochanna apoda. West Coast S.I."
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