TAXONOMY
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
Order: Perciformes (Perch-likes)
Family: Toxotidae (Archerfishes)

Genus/species: Toxotes jaculatrix

Banded Archerfish 8393611643_5ce29954b5_b

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Have silvery or white bodies with black bars. Maximum length 30 cm (12 inches), common length : 20.0 cm (8 inches).

DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Asia and Oceania: India eastward to the
Philippines, and south to Indonesia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and northern Australia. Habitat: primarily in brackish mangrove estuaries, but also penetrates rivers and small streams.

DIET IN THE WILD: Insects, crustaceans, small fishes and floating plant matter.

CONSERVATION: Not endangered.

REMARKS: Used in In botanical gardens to help control plant pests.

T. jaculatrix has the unique ability to shoot insects off branches with amazing accuracy, up to five feet (150 cm) away. They form a tube using the ridge in their tongue and a groove on the roof of their mouth to become living squirt guns. Slamming their gill covers closed propels a powerful jet of water through the channel.
They also have the remarkable ability to compensate for visual refraction when aiming its shoots from water into the air.

Banded Archerfish 8412951528_42ec8b3dd2_b

Feeding Cluster WP32

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