{"id":815662,"date":"2026-07-21T04:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/815662\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T04:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:57:21","slug":"tiny-red-fin-blue-eye-fish-found-only-in-australia-survives-predator-onslaught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/815662\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny red-fin blue-eye fish found only in Australia survives predator onslaught"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using scoops made from milk bottles, Sarah Butler has been working tirelessly to save a tiny fish found nowhere else in the world.<\/p>\n

“Every red-fin blue-eye we’ve caught has had some damage from gambusia,” the volunteer said.<\/p>\n

Found only in a hidden network of artesian springs near Aramac in western Queensland, the blue-eyes’ survival is critical, Ms Butler said.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes, [the damage] presents as fungus from scales missing, [and] the fish get sick. Otherwise, there can be big chunks of the tail missing,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"woman<\/p>\n

Using plastic scoops, Sarah Butler is rescuing a rare species of desert fish. (ABC Western Qld: Crispian Yeomans)<\/p>\n

“Their fry, or their babies, are just immediately getting eaten. Eggs are laid, [then] they’re eaten.”<\/p>\n

Flood brings predator onslaught<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, metre-high floodwaters washed through Edgbaston Reserve, bringing in the larger, invasive mosquitofish known as gambusia.<\/p>\n

All but three of the reserve’s springs have been compromised, with some of the rare fish populations already totally wiped out.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Bush Heritage fish ecologist Dean Gilligan said the return of the invasive predators required an “emergency response” to save the native fish.<\/p>\n

“Once gambusia get into a spring that’s occupied by blue-eyes, the blue-eyes have six to 18 months [at] most before the population goes extinct,” Mr Gilligan said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

This spring has been compromised. (ABC Western Qld: Crispian Yeomans)<\/p>\n

After they were introduced from North America in the 1920s to control mosquitoes, the gambusia have long since spread out of control.<\/p>\n

Survival under threat, again<\/p>\n

The red-fin blue-eye is a critically endangered freshwater species that was first formally recorded in 1990 after being discovered in seven springs on the former Edgbaston Station.<\/p>\n

The cattle property was then purchased in 2008 by Bush Heritage for its ecological significance; the livestock was removed and the property converted into a reserve.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Only a few hundred red-fin blue-eye have survived the gambusia onslaught. (ABC Western Qld: Crispian Yeomans)<\/p>\n

Mr Gilligan said the tiny fish had to fight to survive.<\/p>\n

“Not long after the discovery, the pest fish gambusia turned up on the reserve,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Within a couple of years, those seven sites had dropped back to six and five and four.”<\/p>\n

Gambusia do not lay eggs and instead store male sperm to give birth at a “ridiculous” rate, Mr Gilligan said: up to 60 young per female every three weeks.<\/p>\n

\"grassland\"<\/p>\n

This dry country is an important habitat for the rare native fish, the red-fin blue-eye. (ABC Western Qld: Crispian Yeomans)<\/p>\n

Only one Edgbaston spring survived the initial onslaught.<\/p>\n

Race to survive<\/p>\n

Affectionately nicknamed a “puddle in the desert”, the only surviving spring now contains all the species’ remaining genetic diversity.<\/p>\n

Over two decades, breeding programs slowly restored the red-fin blue-eye populations and returned the fish to springs where it had previously become extinct.<\/p>\n

Mr Gilligan said the gambusia-infested waters got “scarily” close to inundating the reserve’s most important spring this year but did not spill over.<\/p>\n

“If the flood had been another 15 or 20 centimetres higher, we would have lost this spring as well,” Mr Gilligan said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A fence managed to keep the last remnant spring safe, but only just. (ABC Western Qld: Crispian Yeomans)<\/p>\n

Volunteer Steve Baines said elsewhere, the fish were not so lucky.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, the water level of the flood exceeded the fence that we’ve got [here], so, as everyone’s pointed out, invasive species are now in this spring,” Mr Baines said.<\/p>\n

“I can see a massive drop in [red-fin blue-eye] numbers.”<\/p>\n

Ecologists had hoped the knee-high steel mesh perimeter fence would be enough to keep the isolated artesian springs separate from the surrounding ecosystems.<\/p>\n

The fence’s mesh was designed to be small enough to keep out the smallest invasive gambusia while still allowing water to pass through.<\/p>\n

But this year, the issue was the height. The fences were too short.<\/p>\n

Mr Gilligan said the floodwaters were unexpectedly high and a record for the 15 years Bush Heritage had owned Edgbaston Reserve.<\/p>\n

Another consideration was that the springs were growing in size following a multi-decade bore-capping program that allowed Great Artesian Basin aquifers to recover.<\/p>\n

\"three<\/p>\n

Volunteers have saved the last known population of red-fin blue-eyes. (ABC Western QLD: Crispian Yeomans)<\/p>\n

He said he was working with the National Recovery Team for red-fin blue-eye to find a solution, including seeking help from the Queensland and Australian governments.<\/p>\n

“We know that our old strategy of 50cm-high fences isn’t going to work in the long term,” Mr Gilligan said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to come up with something more secure. [We] really don’t know what that is yet, but that’s what we have to figure out and move on with.”<\/p>\n

For volunteer Ms Butler, the emergency call-out meant dropping everything to come out.<\/p>\n

“It was last-minute,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I just felt that I needed to help.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Using scoops made from milk bottles, Sarah Butler has been working tirelessly to save a tiny fish found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[286030,286033,286038,286035,49,48,286032,286029,61301,8636,286034,286036,286037,286031,66,323],"class_list":["post-815662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-aramac","tag-artesian-springs","tag-blue-eye","tag-bush-heritage","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-desert-springs","tag-edgbaston-reserve","tag-extinct","tag-fish","tag-freshwater-fish","tag-gambusia","tag-mosquitofish","tag-red-finned-blue-eye","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}