Australia is home to many unique fish found nowhere else, including iconic species like the Murray Cod, ancient Queensland Lungfish, colourful Rainbowfish, and Dwarf Galaxias, alongside many endemic small species such as gudgeons and hardyheads. The continent's isolation has fostered a rich diversity of fish, with numerous freshwater and marine species unique to its waters, like the Australian Bass, Macquarie Perch, and the distinctive Cockatoo Waspfish.
This is an important step in protecting one of Australia's rarest fish species. The red handfish (Thymichthys politus) is Critically Endangered. It grows to about 8 cm long and is known for its bright colour and hand-like fins, which it uses to walk along the sea floor.
The #1 rarest fish is often considered the Devil's Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) due to its incredibly small habitat in a single Nevada cavern, though some sources cite the Red Handfish as rarer, with only around 100 individuals left in Tasmania; both face critical endangerment, but the Pupfish lives in the smallest known home for any vertebrate.
Native freshwater game fish include the barramundi, Murray cod, and golden perch. Two species of endangered freshwater shark are found in the Northern Territory. Most of Australia's fish species are marine, and 75% live in tropical marine environments.
Some types of fish that would have been caught included barramundi, catfish, mullet, flathead and shark. Throughout Queensland, Aboriginal people made and used many different types of spears for fishing. Some spears were one single piece of wood, others were multi- pronged, and some were barbed.
Barramundi is known by many around the world as Seabass however Australians have been eating Barramundi for centuries, dating back to Dreamtime. In fact, the word Barramundi is an Aboriginal word for 'large-scaled silver fish'.
Fish worth a million dollars are typically rare, prize-winning catches in competitions, like tagged barramundi in Australia, or exceptionally large, high-grade bluefin tuna sold at Japan's New Year auctions for massive publicity and good fortune, with prices sometimes exceeding $3 million for a single fish. These sales aren't always about food cost but also symbolic value, tradition, and marketing, as seen with the famous "Tuna King" Kiyoshi Kimura buying record-setting tuna for his sushi chain, Sushizanmai.
The scales on the Arapaima fish have the same features and qualities of a bulletproof vest.
Catfish have more taste buds than humans do in their mouths, with some species having over 27,000. These taste buds are spread across their entire bodies, including their skin, fins, and barbels (whiskers).
Stone fish. Loaded with a poisonous toxin, the stone fish can inflict excruciating pain and possible death onto the unwary with its 13 dorsal spines. Dwelling among stony, muddy areas the most common cause of injury is usually from swimmers or waders accidentally stepping on a stone fish.
The vaquita is the most endangered cetacean in the world. With as few as around 10 left, the species will become extinct without a fully enforced gillnet ban throughout their entire habitat.
The most eaten fish in Australia depends on how you define it, but Flake (shark) is a top contender for frequency, especially in fish and chips, while Atlantic Salmon is extremely popular for dining and farmed in huge quantities in Tasmania, with Barramundi being an iconic and widely consumed native fish, available year-round.
While it varies, Blue Warehou, Striped Marlin, and Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) are consistently cited as heavily overfished species in Australia, with SBT being critically endangered and others like Blue Warehou and School Shark listed as threatened, often caught as bycatch in major fisheries like the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF).
China is the ruler of the world's largest fish producer. This Panda country leaves far away from its competitors, including India with a distance of six times more. With a total global fish production of 178.8 million tons, one-third of the world's fish production comes from China.
The Pollock and Hoki used in our fish portions is caught in some of the world's cleanest waters. We only use quality 100% Australian RSPCA Approved chicken, supplied by familiar brands like Baiada and Inghams.
Whether it be their genetics or due to the cold conditions they live in and more, there are a lot of species that live for decades, if not longer. One species known for its long lifespan is the rougheye rockfish, a deep-sea fish which can live for over 200 years.
The unhealthiest fish to eat are typically large, predatory species high in mercury like shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and imported tilefish, plus bluefin tuna, which are dangerous for brain/nerve health, especially for pregnant women and children; also, farmed salmon and some imported tilapia/catfish raise concerns for contaminants and antibiotics, while orange roughy and Atlantic cod are often cited for high mercury and overfishing/sustainability issues.
One common myth is that hippos can deflect bullets with their skin. While hippo skin is undeniably tough, it's not impenetrable.
The #1 rarest fish is often considered the Devil's Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) due to its incredibly small habitat in a single Nevada cavern, though some sources cite the Red Handfish as rarer, with only around 100 individuals left in Tasmania; both face critical endangerment, but the Pupfish lives in the smallest known home for any vertebrate.
Koi are beautiful and long-lived fish, living up to and past 100 years in optimal conditions. In domestic ponds, they typically live around 15 to 30 years. Japanese koi often live 40 years or longer. The oldest koi fish on record was around 200 years old!
The 276-kilogram tuna was caught off the coast of Oma in the northeastern prefecture of Aomori Japan…
Large hooks caught larger aquatic animals like cod, golden perch, catfish and turtles. Small hooks caught smaller aquatic animals such as bass and bream. Indigenous Australians have lived on the Australian continent and neighboring islands for thousands of years before European settlement.
Your Guide to the Best Tasting Fish
Stonefish live in coastal shallow waters, estuaries and creek mouths along the Australian coastline, including on the Sunshine Coast. Stonefish grow to 30cm, and are among the most venomous of all fish species.