We typically try to focus exclusively on marine aquarium livestock with all of our posts, but sometimes we have to stop and appreciate other aquatic life as well. We are doing just that today by featuring the always entertaining archer fish in our Picture of the Week. This fish gets its name from its ability to shoot streams of water from its mouth to knock down insects on overhead branches. These surprisingly accurate fish can account for the refraction of light that is caused at the air/water boundary, making their stream of water deadly from even a few feet away. When there is a bunch of archerfish in the area and competition for food is high, they are also known to jump out of the water to capture their prey.
Because of their feeding strategies, the archerfish is a very common aquarium fish, especially to public exhibits. They are pretty much a staple at public aquariums and other exhibits.
