🐟 AquaticCare difficulty: AdvancedLegal complexity: Low
Banded Archerfish
Toxotes jaculatrix · also called Archerfish, Archer Fish, Banded Archer
A striking silver-and-black banded brackish fish famous for shooting jets of water to knock insects off overhanging foliage. A large, surface-oriented specimen fish needing a big, securely covered brackish aquarium.
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Quick facts
| Size | Large; commonly 15-20 cm (6-8 in) in aquaria, up to about 25-30 cm (10-12 in). |
| Lifespan | 5–10 years |
| Social needs | group |
| Native region | Indo-Pacific: coastal and estuarine waters from India and Southeast Asia to northern Australia and Oceania |
| Origin | Old World |
| Climate | 🌴 Tropical |
| Water type | 🌫️ Brackish |
| Family | Toxotidae |
| Genus | Toxotes |
Part of the Archerfish
Archerfish are large, surface-oriented brackish and coastal fish renowned for shooting jets of water to knock insect prey off overhanging vegetation, then leaping to catch food in the air. Intelligent and social, they are specialist aquarium fish that need spacious, securely covered brackish tanks.
More archerfish coming soon.
Sounds & video
🎬 Video
Toxotes jaculatrix
Citron · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Habitat & space requirements
From the minimum an animal needs to be kept humanely, up to the ideal setup. Bigger is almost always better — minimums are floors, not targets.
Life & growth stages
How this animal changes through its life — each stage often has its own care, diet and space needs.
Habitat & enclosure
Keep a small shoal in a large, long brackish aquarium of at least 170-210 L (45-55 US gal), with 250 L or more strongly preferred to give these big, active surface fish swimming and shooting room. Provide ample open surface area, a strong filter and current, and decor of driftwood and mangrove roots; a deep tank with branches or plants reaching toward the surface lets them practice their spitting behavior. A tight, secure lid is essential because archerfish are powerful jumpers, and leaving an air gap above the waterline lets them target prey above the surface.
Maintain brackish conditions: specific gravity roughly 1.005-1.015, pH 7-8, hard water, and temperature 25-30 C (77-86 F). Juveniles handle low-end brackish water, while large adults trend toward higher salinity, even near-marine, in the wild. Strong filtration, surface agitation, and regular water changes keep this large-bodied, messy feeder healthy.
Substrate
Fine sand or smooth gravel works well; since archerfish are brackish, a sand bed mixed with crushed coral or aragonite helps buffer and maintain the slightly saline, hard water they prefer.
Equipment & setup
A long, wide tank (75+ gallons) with strong filtration to handle their messy carnivorous diet, a heater at 78-82F, and most importantly a wide open water-to-glass gap with a secure tight lid. Maintain brackish salinity around 1.005-1.010 specific gravity using a marine salt mix and hydrometer.
Diet
Archerfish are surface-feeding predators of insects and small animals. Offer floating foods and surface-targeted prey: crickets, flies, mealworms (sparingly), small shrimp, bloodworms, chopped seafood, and floating carnivore pellets. Live insects best stimulate their natural shooting and leaping, while many individuals will also learn to take frozen and prepared foods at the surface.
Feed a varied diet and avoid relying too heavily on fatty land insects like mealworms. Floating foods are important so the fish can feed in its natural surface zone; sinking foods are often ignored. Feed appropriately for their large size, but avoid overfeeding given the heavy bioload.
Behavior & temperament
Archerfish are intelligent, social, surface-oriented fish best kept in groups of four or more to spread out mild dominance behavior and bring out natural activity. Their signature behavior is spitting a precise jet of water - accurate to roughly 1-1.5 m and capable of reaching up to about 2 m - to dislodge insects from overhanging leaves, and they can also leap clear of the water to grab prey. A single fish can fire several shots in rapid succession.
Provide enrichment by occasionally offering prey on leaves or surfaces just above the waterline so they can hunt by shooting and jumping. They are generally peaceful with similarly sized brackish tankmates such as scats, monos, and large gobies, but will eat any fish small enough to swallow.
Health
Most health problems stem from unsuitable long-term housing: too-small tanks, inadequate salinity, or poor water quality lead to stress, stunting, and disease. Keeping adults permanently in freshwater is a common mistake that undermines long-term health; appropriate brackish water and pristine, well-filtered conditions are the main preventives.
Watch for whitespot (ich), skin and fin infections, and the effects of poor diet such as fatty-liver issues from too many high-fat feeder insects. Quarantine new, often wild-caught stock, acclimate slowly, and secure the lid to prevent injury or escape from jumping. Stable parameters and a varied diet keep them in good condition.
Tips, DIY & hacks
Leave open air space above the waterline and mount floating or emergent plants/perches so they can practice their signature spitting to knock insects (crickets, mealworms) into the water. Train feeding by holding prey just above the surface, and keep the lid tight because they jump.