bullrout

About this species

The bullrout, also commonly called freshwater stonefish or kroki, is a pale yellowish to dark-brown coloured fish that lives in tidal estuaries and slow-flowing streams in eastern Australia, from southern New South Wales to northern Queensland. It has on a very infrequent occurrence been caught at sea. Its spines are venomous. It is the only member of the genus Notesthes. It is often confused with the true stonefish.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Bullrout”, 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: 9 records
February: 15 records
March: 66 records
April: 82 records
May: 81 records
June: 43 records
July: 11 records
August: 16 records
September: 17 records
October: 11 records
November: 12 records
December: 11 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 15–29 m · Deepest record: 50 m

0–10 m: 5 records
10–20 m: 90 records
20–30 m: 102 records
30–40 m: 14 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–26 °C

16–18 °C: 1 records
18–20 °C: 3 records
20–22 °C: 120 records
22–24 °C: 109 records
24–26 °C: 4 records
26–28 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Nathan Ruser, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) James H, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: bullrout, Freshwater Bullrout, Freshwater Stonefish, Kroki

Names in 1 more languages

French: Poisson-pierre d'eau douce

Other scientific names: Centropogon robustus

Similar species

Cobbler
Gymnapistes marmoratus
Eastern Fortescue
Centropogon australis
waspfish
Paracentropogon longispinis
Redskinfish
Ablabys binotatus
Spiny Leaf-fish
Ablabys macracanthus
Cockatoo Fish
Ablabys taenianotus

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).
795 open-data records from 1898 to 2010.
Species data updated November 5, 2026.