archerfish

[′är·chər‚fish]

(vertebrate zoology)

The common name for any member of the fresh-water family Toxotidae in the order Perciformes; individuals eject a stream of water from the mouth to capture insects.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Archerfish

(Toxotes jaculator), a fish of the family Toxotidae, order Percomorphi. It lives in fresh waters of south-eastern Asia and near the shores of the Indian Ocean and adjacent parts of the Pacific Ocean. Body length is up to 20 cm. Archerfish feed on insects, getting their food in a unique manner: by emitting a thin stream of water from their mouth to a distance up to 1.5 m (hence the Russian common name bryzgun, “sprayer”), they accurately knock insects off the branches and roots of coastal plants.

Mentioned in

Toxotidae

References in periodicals archive

In their experiments, the scientists showed that archerfish can learn to discriminate a large number of human face images even after controlling for colour, head-shape and brightness by standardising these aspects.

Their experiment showed that archerfish can discriminate human faces without having any obvious selection pressure for this specific task, suggesting they have sophisticated discrimination abilities.

More than meets the eye

* What behavior allows an archerfish to catch its prey?

(The archerfish squirts water at insects and spiders, causing them to fall into the water.)

On the hunt: how five clever predators bag their lunch

Archerfish in the lab have revealed that they tailor the extra punch to the height of their target, says physiologist Stefan Schuster of the University of Bayreuth in Germany.

Archerfish mouth reveals spit secret: shooting gobs of water at prey requires rapid oral acrobatics

They found that archerfish spray larger amounts of water at heavy prey like lizards than they do for smaller prey such as flies.

Hot shot

DEAD SPIT Archerfish DEDEDEADADAD SPIPIPIT Arche fifirfihsh

Beast is best; WHY HUMANS AREN'T ALWAYS SUPER.

For the UUV Raytheon selected BAE Systems Underwater Systems' Archerfish, which operates in a similar manner to the Seafox, has twin propulsors and carries a scanning sonar, lowlight level television and Eurenco shaped charge.

Security to 100 atmospheres: fools rush in where angels fear to tread--but in modern naval warfare it is the robots or Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) which are now being sent to discover and destroy the hidden secrets, traps and dangers that lurk deep in Poseidon's realm

DEAD SPIT Archerfish DEDEDEDEADADADAD SPIPIPIPIT Arcrchehe fifirfirfihshshsh

Beast is best; WHY HUMANS AREN'T ALWAYS SUPER.