Archer Fish

[justinp]

No, numerically most species are freshwater fish (4 out of 7, I think). But in terms of the aquarium trade, as CFC says, virtually all of the archers you see will be brackish water species.

http/www.fishbase.org/Nomenclature/Famil...amily=Toxotidae

Cheers,

Neale

where are they from? I thought all archers were brackish water?

Wow, Thanks for the info...I love Archers, had them for years now but never knew there were freshwater Archers...

 

[leopard]

thats a coincidence, we were learning about archer fish today at school

 

[nmonks]

Cool! What did they teach you?

The chief thing they're famous for is correcting for the defraction of the light through the water, in other words, compensating for the thing that makes a teaspoon seem bent when its sitting in a glass of water. But it also appears they calculate where the prey will fall before the water drop actually hits the prey, so they swim to that place to catch the food before anything can steal it from them. In other words, they're amazing little mathematicians!

Cheers,

Neale

thats a coincidence, we were learning about archer fish today at school

 

[leopard]

yea becoz the water refracts light in a certain way the bug looks like its close or (eg, = to the left) but its actually not so it calculates it and spits it to the right so that it will hit it becoz its actually in a straight line just they cant see it!! amazing fish!

 

[beechey]

gees a lot of intresting replys

i havent bought the fish yet as the LFS owner said that archer fish will eat neally any smaller fish, and didnt really want to risk my 3 baby keyholes as there about 1" each

sabby there are 4 shops that i go.. 3 in cov which are not sure what there called but one is at the coventry canal basin, one in kersley and a prts city in bellgreen. and the one i use out of cov is a5 aquatics.

 

[demonmagus]

How would you set up a special tank for archers (so they can spit), would you just fill your tank half way or something?

 

[Fella]

How would you set up a special tank for archers (so they can spit), would you just fill your tank half way or something?

Yeah, I've looked into doing it, and 3/4 full seems the best way to do it, with overhanging branches to put food onto. You could just smear the food onto the glass however.

 

[nmonks]

When I kept an archerfish, I filled the tank normally most of the time, but whenever I did a water change, I'd let the tank run for half an hour half emptied, and then fed the archer. He learned pretty quickly what was going on, and I suppose looked forward to water changes! Also made this chore a bit more fun for me.

I found smearing prawn on the glass works fine. I think I have the details written up on my Brackish FAQ. It's not difficult, but you do need to train them. Very young archers don't spit, by the way, so you have to wait for them to reach a certain size.

Supposedly, other fish spit, to. I've seen a photograph of a blue gourami doing so, for example.

Cheers,

Neale

Yeah, I've looked into doing it, and 3/4 full seems the best way to do it, with overhanging branches to put food onto. You could just smear the food onto the glass however.

 

[demonmagus]

Dunno if I asked before, but what size tank would an archer need?

 

[nmonks]

Depends on the species, but they're fairly large fish. They seem to get to about 15 cm in home aquaria without any bother at all. I'd certainly be thinking about a tank at least 4 feet (120 cm) long. Ideally more. In the wild, some species get to 30+ cm.

Cheers,

Neale

Dunno if I asked before, but what size tank would an archer need?

 

[beechey]

i bought the fish shop`s display archer fish yesterday.. i carnt beleave how big his mouth can open...