Animal-World > Freshwater Fish > Perches and Perch-like Fishes > Archer Fish

Archer Fish ~ Banded Archerfish

Family: Toxotidae

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Archer Fish (gold color morph) Toxotes jaculatrix Photo © Animal-World: Courtesy Ken Childs

   The Archer Fish or Banded Archerfish is a fish renowned for its ability to “shoot” down its prey with a forceful stream of water, ...definitely one of Mother Nature’s wonders!

   Archer Fish of Banded Archerfish are a very common coastal species in many parts of tropical Asia. They live mainly in salty mangrove swamps where they spend their time cruising the shallows looking for food. They will also move into rivers and streams and the more solitary adults may swim out to coral reefs, possibly to breed..

   The Archer Fish has developed the ability to shoot their food by forcing a stream of water through a groove in the roof of their mouths. This jet of water is strong enough to knock insects out of low lying branches into the water where they are quickly gobbled up.

   Even without their unusual ability to shoot prey, they would still be a popular aquarium fish due to their interesting body shape and banded pattern. The Archer Fish pictured above is yellow color morph and is extremely rare. They are typically a silvery or white color with four to six black vertical bands. Juveniles will have a some irregular yellow patches, mostly on top between the bands. Their body is flattened and rather elongated, with a pointed head.

For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Freshwater Aquarium

Dream Aquarium Build your own aquarium The Coolest and Funnest Screensaver in the World.

Distribution:
   The Archer Fish or Banded Archerfish was described by Pallas in 1767. The Archer Fish or Banded Archerfish are found in most of tropical Asia, Papua New Guinea, and northern Australia, inhabiting primarily brackish waters among mangroves, but will also enter rivers and streams.

Status:
   The Archer Fish or Banded Archerfish is not listed on the IUCN Red List.

Description:
   The Archer Fish is a fairly deep bodied, but elongated fish with its head slanting into a sharply pointed, v- shaped snout. It has a silver body with a golden tinting running along its back. There are six black vertical markings across the body, the first one runs through the eye, and the outer edges of the anal and dorsal fin are also black.

Size - Weight:
   These fish can get up to 12 inches (30 cm).

Care and feeding:
   The Archer Fish are primarily carnivores. They can be fed freeze dried foods, flake foods and small live insects. They will also eat frozen foods such as brine shrimp and bloodworms.
   While they will do fine in a tank that’s completely full of water, they are best appreciated if kept in a tank that is only partially filled. This way their unusual feeding ability can be appreciated. They live mainly in brackish mangrove swamps so their tank water should also be brackish.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:
   The Archer Fish or Banded Archerfish will spend most of their time in the middle or top on the aquarium.

Acceptable Water Conditions:
They are often obtain when young as a freshwater fish, but for long term care brackish water is recommended.
    Ph: fairly hard, neutral to slightly alkaline 7.0 - 8.0 is fine
   Temp: 77 - 86° F (25 – 30° C)

Social Behaviors:
   They can get aggressive with others of their own kind if they differ in size, so it best to keep a single specimen or avoid combining Archer Fish of different sizes. They are generally non-aggressive with other types of fish and they will do well in a brackish water community tank. Other brackish fish such as Four Eye Fish, Mudskippers or Mollies can make good tank mates, as can monos, scats, and puffers.

Sexual Differences:
   Sexual differences are unknown.

Buy Archer Fish From LiveAquaria.com

Breeding/Reproduction:
   The Archer Fish has not been bred in captivity.

Availability:
   The Archer fish or Banded Archerfish is commonly available.

Author: Ken Childs

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Latest Comments
This fish is really recommended to keep outdoors. I've been keeping a few for 1 year now. It was really hard to find this fish in pet stores. I bought about 3 of them. I didn't know their gender, so i named them Blast, Low, and Pen. They were doing great in my outdoor pond. My garden had a few leafs hanging over the pond, so it was quite common to see them shooting water or jumping for their preys. After 1 and a half months. Pen died from ammonia or some kind of disease. So i only have two now. These fishes are great fish to keep outdoors. Devon Chew 2006-03-13
Some of the coolest comments:
Thought you might be intersted to know that archer fish have been bred in Australia by a commercial fish farm, Ausyfish Pty Ltd, that's me. They were spawned with hormone. About 10,000 eggs hatched. They were a variety which is strictly freshwater! here is some information that may be of interest. ·brood fish were collected from upper reaches in pure freshwater on Cape York, Queensland. ·Fish were injected the first week of February 2007 after a “running” male was detected. ·No obvious external sex differences. ·The female had a slightly enlarged abdomen but virtually no different to the running male. ·Injected the fish with hormone at standard rate. (1 pair) ·Male weight 145gms ·Female weight 261gms ·Water was maintained at 25C ·PH 7.8 ·Larvae were pigmented. ·From above larvae appeared as bright white specks. From the side they appeared dark in colour. Under magnification, they looked like miniature version of adult fish. ·Larvae were fed newly hatched artemia. ·After 7 days larvae in, they were gradually converted to dried feeds. ·Larvae grew very quickly at high temperatures but slowed dramatically when temperatures dropped. At 3 months old, tank raised larvae were 30mm. 6 months old they were still 30mm ·At 6 months old pond raised larvae had reached 13cm. Bruce Sambell 2007-07-25
While these fish are a joy to have outdoors, they are susceptable to many dangers if mixed with koi, which produce far too much ammonia. As well, the larger they grow the more they require brackish water. This is usually obtained when water is 1.010 (1 tablespoon aquarium salt to every 5 gallons water) I have found that a 35+ gallon tank(55 gallon) is a good "only" tank that is prepared using a crushed coral or sand substrate (dont bother with "live" sand, your salinity will be too low to keep it that way). They like warm conditions as well, 78-80 degrees F. preferred. The younger fish around 3 inches or less are more comfortable if they have Plants around the surface of the water. Mangroves (as they are their native habitat) are best, as well as Java Moss. Both these plants thrive in Brackish water, that excludes most common Aquarium live plants. Fellow tank mates can include Figure 8 puffers, Knight Gobys, Mudskippers, Scats, Mollies, and fiddler crabs, as well as some other brackish friendly fish. Again, this is not a freshwater fish, so use caution if you tend to want a community of fish that are readily available from your local fish store. But by the same token, these fish are so entertaining and expressive and unique that building a tank around them is a true hobbyist adventure. philip 2007-06-05

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Author: Ken Childs
Edited by Animal-World

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