A century later, Southern Purple-spotted Gudgeon are back in Adelaide!

After not being seen in Adelaide wetlands for 100 years, critically endangered Southern Purple-spotted Gudgeon were released into Oaklands Wetland late last year.

Oaklands Wetland underwent five years of water drawdown and alien fish elimination to make it suitable for this release (see previous post here) and was planted up with submerged aquatic plants ready for the little fish arrival.

A recent survey of the wetland has shown these beautiful fish are thriving with hundreds of fish sampled of all size classes – a great sign that the species is successfully establishing in the wetland. The site is being used as breeding refuge habitat for the threatened and small-bodied Southern Purple-spotted Gudgeon, a species which is at risk of extinction.

This project is a joint project between Aquasave-NGT, Green Adelaide, City of Marion and Landscape SA.

Sylvia Zukowski