thumb|Salamanderfish observed in habitat, 2023
Lepidogalaxias salamandroides is a species of small freshwater fish of Western Australia. It is the only member of the family Lepidogalaxiidae and genus Lepidogalaxias. Common names for this fish include salamanderfish and Shannon mudminnow. Although it is not a lungfish, it resembles lungfish in several respects, including its ability to survive dry seasons by burrowing into the sand. It is on the IUCN Red List as Endangered.
Biology
The salamanderfish spawn in winter when water levels are highest. Males have a uniquely modified anal fin used for internal fertilization. When not in use, it is folded strongly to the left or right and sheathed with a series of greatly enlarged scales. The females produce 100–400 eggs with a diameter of 1.1–1.3mm, which hatch into bottom-feeder larvae 5.5mm long. Larvae and juveniles grow rapidly to gain fat stores to survive the summer drought period.
Range and habitat
It has a limited distribution in acidic pools of water in heathland peat flats of southwest Australia, between the Blackwood and Kent Rivers. This author identified the species as belonging to the Galaxiidae, but the relationship to those species was in doubt. Lepidogalaxias salamandroides was eventually placed among the Osmeriformes as a monotypic arrangement, Lepidogalaxias (Lepidogalaxiidae), in 1991. This placement has been also challenged, and rightly so, as analyses of molecular data have shown that Lepidogalaxias is actually an old and isolated lineage basal to all other Euteleostei. The species is contained in the class Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish, and is sometimes given the taxonomic placements as Galaxiidae of the order Salmoniformes. long-finned Galaxias, A further list of names refer to L. salamandroides as salamanderfish of Western Australia, West Australian salamanderfish, salamander fish, salamanderfish, and Shannon mudminnow.