Toxotidae
The archerfish (also known as spinner fish or archer fish) or Toxotidae are a family of percomorph tropical fish known for their unique predation technique of "shooting down" land-based insects and other small prey with jets of water spit from their specialized mouths. The family is small, consisting of ten species in two genera, Toxotes and Protoxotes. Most archerfish live in freshwater streams, ponds and wetlands, but two or three species are euryhaline, inhabiting both fresh and brackish water habitats such as estuaries and mangroves. They can be found from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Species
- Capture of prey
- See also
- References
- External links
The archerfish (also known as spinner fish or archer fish) or Toxotidae are a family of percomorph tropical fish known for their unique predation technique of "shooting down" land-based insects and other small prey with jets of water spit from their specialized mouths. The family is small, consisting of ten species in two genera, Toxotes and Protoxotes. Most archerfish live in freshwater streams, ponds and wetlands, but two or three species are euryhaline, inhabiting both fresh and brackish water habitats such as estuaries and mangroves. They can be found from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, through Southeast Asia, to Melanesia and Northern Australia.
Archerfish have deep and laterally compressed bodies, with the dorsal fin and the profile a straight line from dorsal fin to mouth. The mouth is protractile, and the lower jaw juts out. Sizes are fairly small, typically up to about , but T. chatareus can reach .