Common Galaxias

About this species

The common galaxias or inanga is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Galaxiidae that is widespread in the Southern Hemisphere. It is migratory, living in fresh water but spawning at river mouths, spending the first six months of its life at sea, and returning en masse in spring. Its vernacular names include cowfish, jollytail, common jollytail, eel gudgeon, inaka, native trout, pulangi, puye, slippery tarki, spotted minnow, Falklands minnow and whitebait.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Common galaxias”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 163 records
February: 160 records
March: 211 records
April: 166 records
May: 121 records
June: 55 records
July: 46 records
August: 93 records
September: 86 records
October: 140 records
November: 150 records
December: 148 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–2 m · Deepest record: 54 m

0–10 m: 51 records
10–20 m: 1 records
20–30 m: 0 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 6–23 °C

4–6 °C: 1 records
6–8 °C: 5 records
8–10 °C: 0 records
10–12 °C: 0 records
12–14 °C: 14 records
14–16 °C: 72 records
16–18 °C: 17 records
18–20 °C: 6 records
20–22 °C: 17 records
22–24 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) Lek Khauv, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Lek Khauv · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Shaun Lee, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Emily Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Greg Wallis, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Grady Duffy, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jesse de Vries, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lek Khauv, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Common Galaxias, Common Jollytail, Eel-gudgeon, Eel Gudgeon, Inanga, Jollytail, Lananga, Native Trout, Pulangi, Slippery Tarki, Spotted Minnow, Whitebait

Names in 3 more languages

German: Fleckengalaxie
Spanish: puye, Puyen, Puyen chico
Simplified Chinese: 大斑南乳魚

Other scientific names: Galaxias alpinus, Galaxias amaenus, Galaxias attenuatus, Galaxias coppingeri, Galaxias cylindricus, Galaxias delicatulus, Galaxias forsteri, Galaxias krefftii, Galaxias minutus, Galaxias nebulosa, Galaxias obtusus, Galaxias parrishi, Galaxias pseudoscriba, Galaxias punctatus, Galaxias punctulatus, Galaxias scriba, Galaxias usitatus, Galaxias variegatus, Galaxias versicolor, Galaxias waterhousei, Galaxias waterhousi, Mesites alpinus, Mesites attenuatus, Mesites forsteri, Mesites gracillimus, Mesites maculatus

Similar species

Broad-finned Galaxias
Galaxias brevipinnis
Banded kokopu
Galaxias fasciatus
Native Trout
Galaxias truttaceus
Giant kokopu
Galaxias argenteus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
19,229 open-data records from 1862 to 2019.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.