Australian Lamprey Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Small, slender body rarely exceeding about 15 cm at maturity
• Eyes set unusually far forward, close to the tip of the snout
• Oral disc is small with reduced, blunt teeth since adults stop feeding after transforming
• Two dorsal fins set close together along the rear half of the body
• Olive-brown coloration above fading to pale cream on the belly
• No scales, no paired fins, and a single row of gill openings on each side

Common look-alikes

• The short-headed lamprey is a close relative but grows much larger, keeps functional feeding teeth, and spends part of its life at sea.
• The pouched lamprey is far bigger and, in breeding males, develops a distinctive balloon-like throat pouch this species never shows.
• General brook lamprey species elsewhere look similar but are geographically separated and lack the extreme forward eye placement.

Where you'll see one

This lamprey is confined to a single small coastal drainage in southeastern Australia, where it spends its entire life cycle in freshwater streams, never migrating to the ocean, and burrows as a larva in silty stream margins before a brief, non-feeding adult stage.