© Baker, J.L. (2009) Marine Species of Conservation Concern in South Australia Full citation Baker, J.L. (2009) Marine Species of Conservation Concern in South Australia: Volume 1 - Bony and Cartilaginous Fishes. Report for the South Australian Working Group for Marine Species of Conservation Concern. J. Baker (consultant); Science and Conservation Division, and Coast and Marine Conservation branches of S.A. Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH); Marine and Coastal Community Network of S.A. (MCCN), and Threatened Species Network (TSN). Web version published by Reef Watch, South Australia.

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BOVICHTIDAE OR PSEUDAPHRITIDAE

© Michael Hammer

 
The Bovichtidae is a family with most representatives in the Antarctic, sub-Antarctic and southern temperate waters of the Atlantic (Glover, in Gomon et al., 1994). In southern Australia, most classifications of fishes assign the Congolli, Tupong or Sandy Pseudaphritis urvillii, to the Bovichtidae (temperate icefish) family (e.g. Glover, in Gomon et al., 1994; Hoese et al., 2006; CSIRO, 2008). However, based on morphological characters and evolutionary cladistic studies, plus the fact that P. urvillii does not have anti-freeze proteins in the blood, others have assigned it to a small separate family, the Pseudaphritidae, with P. urvillii being one of 3 known members in the genus (Balushkin, 1992, 2000; Eastman and Eakin, 2000, cited in Froese and Pauly, 2008).
A related species from Victoria and Tasmania, the Flathead Congolli, Halaphritis platycephala, was described in 2002 (Last, Balushkin and Hutchins, 2002). Compared with P. urvillii, the Flathead Congolli H. platycephala has a different habit and habitat – it lives inside caves, or under reef ledges in the shallow subtidal, and is adapted to crawling around in confined spaces (Last et al., 2002).
The Congolli P. urvillii is included in a synopsis below, due to reliance for part of its life cycle on estuarine and freshwater habitats, which, in South Australia, are few in number and degraded in nature.
 

Associated taxa

Congolli / Tupong / Sandy

Pseudaphritis urvillii (Valenciennes, in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1832)