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About me:

The Two-spined Blackfish is a fastidious fish, exclusively living in cool, clear upland or montane streams with abundant instream cover, usually in the form of boulders and cobble. And when you’ve found the perfect location, why ever leave? At least that’s what this fish thinks, who is nocturnal and will not travel more than 15m from its home range.

The Two-spined Blackfish is a small to medium sized fish with a yellowish-brown to olive green back and sides that are often spectacularly mottled similar to a giraffe’s coat. Not only does the Two-spined Blackfish’s scales look groovy, but they are also covered in a thick mucous coating. The pelvic fins have been reduced to a pair of fine, white, divided filaments located under the throat. The dorsal fin is low and long, reaching almost to the tail. The dorsal fin has 1–3, usually 2, spines.

Its diet is dominated by aquatic insect larvae, particularly mayflies, caddisflies and midges, and occasionally fish and crayfish. Young-of-year and juvenile blackfish eat proportionally more mayfly and midge larvae than adult fish, which consume larger items such as caddisfly larvae and terrestrial invertebrates.

Threats:

The major threats to Two-spined Blackfish are habitat destruction or modification, river regulation, barriers to fish passage, sedimentation, reduced water quality, alien fish species and climate change.

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