Distribution and impacts of introduced freshwater fishes in Western Australia
Morgan, D.L., Gill, H.S., Maddern, M.G. and Beatty, S.J. (2004) Distribution and impacts of introduced freshwater fishes in Western Australia. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 38 (3). pp. 511-523.
This paper presents comprehensive distributional data, from over 1300 sites, on introduced freshwater fishes in Western Australia. Currently, there are 10 species of introduced freshwater fish established in the inland waters of Western Australia. Most of the introduced fishes found here are those that have formed feral populations elsewhere in the world, and include members of the Salmonidae, i.e., rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta); Cyprinidae, i.e., goldfish (Carassius auratus) and carp (Cyprinus carpio); Poeciliidae, i.e., mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), one-spot livebearer (Phalloceros caudimaculatus), guppy (Poecilia reticulata), and swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii); Percidae, i.e., redfin perch (Perca fluviatilis), and Cichlidae, i.e., Mozambique mouthbrooder or tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). More recently, the eastern Australian silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) (Terapontidae), which was introduced for aquaculture, has been captured in the Swan River near Perth. It is not known whether this population is self-maintaining. The majority of introduced species are confined to the south-west, although four and one species have been recorded from the Pilbara and Kimberley, respectively. Some species are extremely common and widespread, e.g., G. holbrooki and P. fluviatilis, whereas others are far more restricted and may be confined to between one and three catchments, e.g., C. carpio, P. caudimaculatus, P. reticulata, X. hellerii, O. mossambicus, and B. bidyanus. The impact of these introduced fishes on native species varies, but ranges from predation, e.g., O. mykiss, S. trutta, G. holbrooki, and P. fluviatilis, to aggressiveness, e.g., G. holbrooki, X. hellerii, and O. mossambicus, and competition for food and habitat.
|Publication Type:||Journal Article|
|Murdoch Affiliation:||Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research|
|Publisher:||Royal Society of New Zealand|
|Copyright:||2004 Royal Society of New Zealand|
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