See text The Galaxiidae are a family of mostly small freshwater fish in the Southern Hemisphere.

Exotic salmonids have been recklessly introduced to many different land masses (e.g. Australia, New Zealand), with no thought as to impacts on native fish, or attempts to preserve salmonid-free habitats for them.

[1] Phylogenetic evidence alternatively places galaxiids within the Protacanthopterygii, or more recently as the sister group to the Neoteleostei.

[3][4] The earliest definitive fossils of galaxiids are from the Miocene of New Zealand, which can be placed in the extant genus Galaxias.

[6] Other taxonomic treatments have instead placed Stompooria as part of an extinct clade sister to the Esociformes and Salmoniformes.

The galaxiids and the temperate perches (Percichthyidae) are the dominant native freshwater fish families of southern Australia.