Fish
Mouth almighty
kuyuGlossamia aprion
The mouth almighty is the small barred fish that hangs motionless in the weed at the edge of a pool and, after dark, swallows anything it can fit: 'a nocturnal species which ambushes its prey, mainly small crustaceans, insects, and smaller fish'[1]. It is a cardinalfish that has moved into fresh water, 'strictly a freshwater species although most other members of its group are marine', creamy-brown with six to eight broken dark bars and a dark bar through the eye, to 18 cm and 600 g in the north[2][1][3]. The female lays a few large eggs in a packet and the male carries them in his mouth until they hatch, well grown, which is where the name comes from[1][2]. It is 'quite good eating despite its usually small size', it tolerates water to 38 °C, and on the Mitchell its diet is prawns before anything else[2][3][4]. It is recorded within 30 km of Karma Waters; the dictionary has no word for it beyond kuyu, 'fish'[5][6].
Nothing is written for the Eastern coast on this page yet. What follows is true across the country.
Hann River Cape York
Possum People's country on the upper river and Thaypan (Kuku Thaypan) country downstream: stringybark and bloodwood woodland and a spring-fed sandy river that runs north-east from the Great Dividing Range, past the Peninsula Developmental Road, into Rinyirru (Lakefield) and the North Kennedy. Not Kuku Yalanji country: the Kuku Yalanji words on this page are the dictionary's, not the Hann's own languages. Place guide
The mouth almighty lives in the Hann country's still, weedy water, but few people have written it down: the Atlas of Living Australia holds 5 records, from 1972 to 2015, in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann, Laura and western Rinyirru[20]. Nothing is published on how the Possum, Thaypan or Kuku Warra people named or took it; see the general sections for the fish and the ways of taking it.
Where it lives here
It wants 'still or gently flowing water', 'usually in well vegetated, shallow margins'[3]. The Hann is spring-fed and has not had a day without flow since its gauge began in 1968; by September–November it runs very low and clear between its deep holes[21][22]. Look for the mouth almighty in the weed at the edges of those holes, and in the lakes and lagoons of the floodplain downstream[23].
Its year here
It spawns in summer[2]. On the Hann that is the wet, when the river is at its highest, with mean flows of about 20–22 m³/s in February and March[21]. In the late dry it is shut into the weedy edges of the deep holes with every other fish, and it tolerates water 'to at least 38 °C'[3].
How people used it here
The fishing recorded for this country is for bigger fish. The Court recorded a Possum man's evidence of 'fishing for barra, jewfish, catties and spotties'[24]. Anglers surveyed on the Lakefield rivers in 1986–91 caught archerfish, tarpon, sooty grunter, sleepy cod, jewfish, eels, long tom, fork-tailed catfish and barramundi; the mouth almighty is not in their list[25], which fits a fish 'not generally considered an angling species due to its size'[2].
On country today
A Kuku Warra man described the rule for fishing on his country: 'before I pull my line out if I'm fishing I'll sing out to the old people', and 'we must always leave three or four fish on the banks after we leave to show appreciation for the people of the country'[26]. Downstream in Rinyirru the park's rule is to stand 'a few metres back from the water's edge' when fishing and never to clean fish near the water[27].
Upper Mitchell Western Yalanji
Western Yalanji country west of the Great Dividing Range: dry open woodland cut by the sandy, paperbark-lined upper Mitchell River, around Karma Waters and Mount Carbine. Place guide
On the upper Mitchell the mouth almighty is recorded within 30 km of Karma Waters[5].
Where it lives here
On Karma Waters that is the weedy, rooty edges of the dry-season pools and the lagoons off the river; the waterhole page gives the pools' temperatures, well inside the mouth almighty's 38 °C[28].
Its year here
Its summer spawning, 'at water temperatures of about 22 °C', falls on the Mitchell from the end of the dry through the storms[2][28].
On country today
The mouth almighty is in the weedy pools of the Mitchell at Karma Waters, one of the fish of the night shift that the prawns feed[5][4].
Everywhere
Names
No Kuku Yalanji name is recorded; kuyu 'fish', and kurruba 'species of freshwater fish' is unidentified[6]. The English names say what people noticed: mouth almighty, Queensland mouthbrooder, Gill's cardinalfish, and the less kind 'flabby' and 'stinker'[2]. The genus Glossamia is the freshwater branch of the cardinalfishes, Apogonidae, a family of small marine mouthbrooders[1].
The fish
'G. aprion has a creamy-brown background colour and six to eight irregularly shaped, broken markings which are similar to bars; these are darker olive-brown in colour and they reach the ventral side. They also have many irregular, darker brown spots and blotches, which vary in size, and a dark bar which runs from the eye to gills. The first dorsal fin is sooty in colour, with the outer half much darker than the inner part, as are the pelvic and the inner parts of second dorsal and anal fins'[1]. 'To 180 mm, 600 g in northern Australia, to 150 mm in southern waters'[2]; commonly 12 cm[3].
'Widespread in northern Australia, where it occurs in rivers, creeks, and lagoons from the Fitzroy River in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia to the Burnett River in Queensland. It is found in similar habitats in New Guinea'[1]. 'Native to still or slowly flowing fresh waters, where it shelters in aquatic vegetation growing in the shallows near the edges. It is a nocturnal species which ambushes its prey, mainly small crustaceans, insects, and smaller fish'[1]. 'Solitary, carnivore. Most of its time is spent sitting motionless among plants'; 'tolerant of temperatures to at least 38 °C and pH range of 4.5–8.1'[3]. On the Mitchell, prawns 'featured prominently' in its diet[4].
Breeding. 'The female lays a relatively small number of large eggs. These are brooded by the male in his mouth, and the larvae hatch at a quite advanced stage'[1]. 'Spawns in summer at water temperatures of about 22 °C. The eggs are about 3 mm across and laid in a packet surrounded by a thin membrane. The male incubates the eggs in his mouth'[2].
'Not generally considered an angling species due to its size. Quite good eating despite its usually small size'[2].
Mouth almighty, gudgeon, grunter
- Mouth almighty: barred and blotched, a bar through the eye, two back fins, a big mouth on a small fish, hanging in the weed[1].
- Sleepy cod and the small gudgeons: mottled rather than barred, on the bottom rather than in the weed[7].
- Barred grunter (Amniataba): dark vertical bars too, but a single notched back fin and a grunter's shape, in open water[5].
- Spangled perch: spotted, not barred; silvery; out in the open by day[8].
- Archerfish (mujarrka): barred and big-eyed, but silver, under the overhangs at the surface, and it spits[6].
Signs
- A fish hanging dead still in the weed at the edge of a pool, head down a little, in daylight[3].
- A male with a swollen throat that will not feed, in the storm season: a mouthful of eggs[2].
- Small prawns scattering at the weedy edge at night, and a swirl[4].
- It comes to a torch: the night-spearing light of the Bloomfield rivers draws the night fish to the edges[9].
Where it lives
'Still or gently flowing water of streams, pools, lakes, swamps and reservoirs, usually in well vegetated, shallow margins'[3]. It is 'strictly a freshwater species'[2].
The ambush in the weed
After dark the mouth almighty takes the weedy edge of the pool: the small prawns and cherabin, the insects that fall in, the rainbowfish and the fry of everything, while the sleepy cod takes the bottom and the catfish the open sand[1][4]. By day, hanging in the weed, it is prey itself for the barramundi, the freshwater crocodile, the darter and the kingfishers[10][11]. Its eggs are the safest in the pool, in the male's mouth, and few, which is the cardinalfish way; the waterhole page has the whole pool's day and night.
Seasons
Spawning in summer, 'at water temperatures of about 22 °C'; males mouthbrooding then[2]. Through the dry it is in the weed of every pool; in the hot late dry it is still comfortable at 38 °C[3]. See the year on country.
Uses
Taking mouth almighty
The ways of taking river fish are on their own pages: spears, nets, traps and fences, hooks and lines and fish poisons. At Bloomfield, night fishing was 'done on the tidal estuaries from a canoe at night. One person sat at the front of the boat holding aloft a burning paperbark torch. As the fish were attracted to the light, another person would spear them'[9]. On the Mitchell, Palmer saw the freshwater mangrove Barringtonia racemosa, 'Yakoora', cut up, hammered fine and put in the lagoons, and the coolibah's branches and leaves 'laid in water for several days to sicken the fish; it is universally used for this purpose'[13].
- A grass fence or a dip net (makarr) worked through the weedy margin of a pool at dusk takes them with the prawns[12][6].
- By torchlight at the edge, with a small spear, the Bloomfield way[9].
- On a small hook with a prawn after dark, beside the weed[1].
- Let the brooding males go in the storm season; a swollen throat is the next generation[2].
- Cook on the coals whole; the flesh is white and the fish is small[2].
Safety
- Crocodile water at night, which is when this fish is taken[14][15].
- Not listed in the Queensland freshwater size and possession table; the gear rules apply[16][17].
- Native title holders' fishing for personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs is covered by section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993 and section 14 of the Fisheries Act 1994[18][19].
On Country today
No Kuku Yalanji name for the mouth almighty is recorded. If the Western Yalanji or any other Kuku Yalanji speakers have one, the contribution box below is for that[6].
Language
kuyu 'fish'; kurruba 'species of freshwater fish'; mujarrka 'archerfish'; wukuju 'freshwater prawn'; makarr 'fish net'; yinba 'fish spear'; bana 'water'[6].
References
- Wikipedia. Mouth almighty (Glossamia aprion). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouth_almighty
- Native Fish Australia. Mouth almighty, Glossamia aprion (species page). www.nativefish.asn.au/home/page/Mouth-Almighty
- FishBase. Glossamia aprion (Richardson, 1842), mouth almighty: habitat, size and behaviour, citing Allen (1991) and Allen, Midgley & Allen (2002). www.fishbase.se/summary/Glossamia-aprion
- Jardine, T. D., Pettit, N. E., Warfe, D. M., Pusey, B. J., Ward, D. P., Douglas, M. M., Davies, P. M. & Bunn, S. E. (2012). Consumer–resource coupling in wet–dry tropical rivers. Journal of Animal Ecology 81: 310–322. Mitchell River sites sampled in the early dry season. doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01925.x
- Atlas of Living Australia. Occurrence records within 30 km of the Karma Waters homestead (16.62°S, 144.60°E), queried 10 October 2026: river animals and waterbirds. biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=*:*&lat=-16.62&lon=144.60&radius=30
- Hershberger, H. D. & Hershberger, R. (1982). Kuku-Yalanji Dictionary. Work Papers of SIL-AAB, Series B, Volume 7. With Toby Bloomfield, Roy Friday, Billy Roberts, Hector and Doris Sykes, Joe Walker and others. www.sil.org/resources/archives/18038
- Wikipedia. Sleepy cod (Oxyeleotris lineolata). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_cod
- Lintermans, M. (2023). Fishes of the Murray–Darling Basin, second edition. Australian River Restoration Centre, Canberra. Species account: spangled perch, Leiopotherapon unicolor (extract at mdb.fish). www.mdb.fish/fish-fact-sheets/spangled-perch
- Anderson, C. (1996). Traditional material culture of the Kuku-Yalanji of Bloomfield River, North Queensland. Records of the South Australian Museum 29(1): 63–83. Based on fieldwork at Wujal Wujal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. — Hunting (spears, spear-throwers, harpoons); fishing (stupefacients); manufacturing (gums and resins); post-contact bush component archive.org/details/RecordsSouthAus29Sout
- Tucker, A. D., Limpus, C. J., McCallum, H. I. & McDonald, K. R. (1996). Ontogenetic dietary partitioning by Crocodylus johnstoni during the dry season. Copeia 1996(4): 978–988. 324 crocodiles stomach-flushed over three dry seasons in Queensland. doi.org/10.2307/1447669
- Wikipedia. Australasian darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasian_darter
- Roth, W. E. (1901). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 3: Food — its search, capture, and preparation. Brisbane: Government Printer. Bloomfield River information from the Hislops. — Sect. 6 'Cooking'; plant list ('Castanospermum australe', 'Dioscorea sativa', 'Elettaria Scottiana', 'Nymphaea') archive.org/details/northqueensland00landgoog
- Palmer, E. (1883). On plants used by the natives of North Queensland, Flinders and Mitchell Rivers, for food, medicine, &c., &c. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 17: 93–113. Palmer's Mitchell River names come from the lower and middle Mitchell, not from Kuku Yalanji speakers. archive.org/details/journalandproce16walegoog
- Queensland Government. Be Crocwise top tips; Be Crocwise in Croc Country (web pages, accessed 5 October 2026). www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/animals/living-with/crocodiles/becrocwise/be-crocwise-top-tips
- Karma Waters Station. About: location, native title (web page, accessed 5 October 2026). www.karmawatersstation.com/about.html
- Queensland Government. Size and possession limits in fresh waters (web page, last updated 27 March 2026, accessed 5 October 2026). www.qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/rules/limits-fresh
- Queensland Government. Fishing equipment rules: fresh waters (web page, last updated 26 March 2026, accessed 6 October 2026). www.qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/rules/equipment
- Australian Law Reform Commission. Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (DP 82), ch. 8: Relevant provisions in the Native Title Act (s 211). www.alrc.gov.au/publication/review-of-the-native-title-act-1993-dp-82/8-the-nature-and-content-of-native-title/relevant-provisions-in-the-native-title-act/
- Fisheries Act 1994 (Qld), current as at 27 April 2026: s 14 (defence for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples). www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-1994-037
- Atlas of Living Australia. Occurrence records of Glossamia aprion (5 records, 1972–2015) in a box of about 90 × 85 km around the middle Hann River, Laura and western Rinyirru (lat −15.6 to −14.8, long 143.5 to 144.3), queried 28 October 2026. biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=taxon_name%3A%22Glossamia%20aprion%22&fq=decimalLatitude%3A%5B-15.6%20TO%20-14.8%5D&fq=decimalLongitude%3A%5B143.5%20TO%20144.3%5D
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online. Station 105001B, Hann River at Sandy Creek: daily and monthly mean discharge 1968–2026 (recent data provisional), retrieved 28 October 2026. No day of zero mean flow in 20,711 days of record; mean flow highest in February–March, lowest in September–November. www.bom.gov.au/waterdata/
- Queensland Government, WetlandInfo. Normanby catchment story: physical features (springs and base flow). wetlandinfo.detsi.qld.gov.au/wetlands/ecology/processes-systems/water/catchment-stories/normanby/norm-physical.html
- Queensland Herbarium. Regional ecosystem descriptions, Cape York Peninsula bioregion: 3.3.10a (Melaleuca fluviatilis fringing woodland), 3.3.24 (Eucalyptus leptophleba woodland on riverine levees, Laura area), 3.10.6 and 3.10.10 (Darwin stringybark woodland on sandstone), 3.3.66 (lakes and lagoons). apps.des.qld.gov.au/regional-ecosystems/
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 21) (Possum determination) [2023] FCA 1316 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). — Determination area (upper Hann and Kennedy rivers); prescribed body corporate; affidavit evidence on hunting and fishing www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1316
- Russell, D. J. & Hales, P. W. (1993). A survey of the Princess Charlotte Bay recreational barramundi fishery. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, QI93049. era.dpi.qld.gov.au/id/eprint/6393/1/Survey%20of%20the%20Princess%20Charlotte%20Bay%20recreational%20barramundi%20fishery_QI93049_1993_russell.pdf
- Ross on behalf of the Cape York United #1 Claim Group v State of Queensland (No 19) (Kuku Warra determination) [2023] FCA 1314 (Federal Court of Australia, 2 November 2023). www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca1314
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Visiting Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (CYPAL) safely (web page, last updated 1 June 2025; accessed 28 October 2026). parks.qld.gov.au/parks/rinyirru-lakefield/visiting-safely
- The temperature regimes of dry-season waterholes in tropical northern Australia: potential effects on fish refugia (Flinders and Gilbert catchments). Freshwater Science. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/681278
From the community
Know this one? Add the words you use for it, what it is for, how it is done, a correction, or a photo from country. It shows here straight away with your name on it. Please keep anything restricted or sacred off the site.
Loading…