#2343 · 🐟 fish

Old Wife

Enoplosus armatus

LCleast concern 🐟 Fish 📍 outside Europe

7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © J. Martin Crossley · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
2. © J. Martin Crossley · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
3. © J. Martin Crossley · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
4. © Marine Life Society of SA · CC BY-NC 4.0
5. © J. Martin Crossley · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
6. © Dan Monceaux · CC BY-NC 4.0
7. © Erik Schlögl · CC BY-NC 4.0

what is it?

Enoplosus armatus , the old wife (plural: old wives), is a species of perciform fish endemic to the temperate coastal waters of Australia. It is the only modern species in the family Enoplosidae .

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 4,276iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
4,276 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by John White in 1790 (236 years ago).

fact sheet

English: Old Wife
scientific name: Enoplosus armatus
class: Actinopterygii
order: Centrarchiformes
family: Enoplosidae
IUCN Red List: LC · least concern
sightings in NL: 0
sightings worldwide: 4,276
GBIF records in NL: 0
weight: —
length: —
lifespan: —
named: 1790 by John White

IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.

Sources: iNaturalist taxon 322007, Wikidata Q162274, GBIF 2391990, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.