As for other members of the species complex with a long tubular body which is distinctly stocky, particularly between the vent and the pectoral fins.

Stream bed consists of bedrock and large to small rounded stones with some pebbles, gravel, and areas of silt.

[2] The stocky galaxias is confined to freshwater, with no downstream migration to the sea or estuary during its life cycle.

[4] A small team of scientists at the Thurgoona campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury have been working on a captive breeding project since 2020, after the 2019–2020 bushfires burned in Kosciuszko National Park.

Rescuers relocated 142 fish from Tantangara Creek first to a DPI Fisheries hatchery at Gaden in Jindabyne, and later 36 of them were taken to the Gulbali Institute at CSU.

After several years of painstaking work involving fertilisation in a petri dish, the team managed to breed larvae in captivity in early 2023, and planned to translocate some of these to a new location in the wild at the end of March.