Toxotes chatareus | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Perciformes |
Family: | Toxotidae |
Genus: | Toxotes |
Species: | T. chatareus |
Binomial name | |
Toxotes chatareus (Hamilton, 1822) | |
Synonyms [2] | |
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Toxotes chatareus, sometimes known by the common names common archerfish, seven-spot archerfish or largescale archerfish, is a species of perciform fish in the archerfish genus Toxotes . [3]
They are usually no larger than 20 centimetres (7.9 in) but may grow up to 40 centimetres (16 in). Unlike most archerfish, T. chatareus are sooty rather than silvery in colour. They are omnivorous, feeding on insects, fish, and vegetative matter at the surface of the water. Breeding occurs in the wet season, and 20,000 to 150,000 eggs may be laid at one time.
T. chatareus are distributed throughout southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific and Australia. They may live in brackish or fresh water, inhabiting mangrove swamps and estuaries as well as further upstream in slow-moving rivers. While occasionally caught and eaten, T. chatareus are more commonly kept in the aquarium. They may be sold with other Toxotidae under the collective label "archerfish". Caring for T. chatareus in aquaria is somewhat difficult as they need live food given at the surface, rather than flake food.
Toxotes chatareus are of moderate size, usually between 15 and 20 centimetres (5.9 and 7.9 in). [4] Rarely, they may reach up to 40 centimetres (16 in) in length. [5] T. chatareus weigh up to 700 grams (25 oz). [6] T. chatareus are believed to have a lifespan of three to five years. [6]
T. chatareus have five or six dorsal spines, the fourth of which is the longest, [7] and twelve or thirteen dorsal soft rays. [5] The dorsal spines are generally shorter in specimens collected from freshwater than those from brackish water. [6] T. chatareus also have three anal spines and fifteen to seventeen anal soft rays. [5] T. chatareus have 33 or 34 lateral line scales. [4] The caudal (tail) fin in almost square. [7] The anal fin is undivided [8] and the third anal spine is longest. [7]
Overall, the body is sooty [9] but sometimes silvery or gold. [7] The dorsal side is "greenish brown". [7] The pectoral fins are clear or "dusky" in colour. [6] Pelvic fins may be darker and heavily pigmented. [6] T. chatareus are white and usually has six or seven dark blotches, alternating long and short, along the dorsal side. [9] A dark blotch is also found at the base of the caudal fin. The colour of these blotches may become darker or lighter due to time of day, environment, and stress. [6] The blotches of young fish are darker than those of older fish. [7] Startled or stressed fish are darker than unstressed fish; fish found in cloudy water may be completely white. [6] It is unknown whether sexual dimorphism occurs. [10]
T. chatareus can be distinguished by their sooty colour, as opposed to the typical silver of most other archerfish. [9] They have five dorsal spines, whereas T. jaculatrix have four. The markings on their flanks are also alternating long and short spots rather than bands. [9] T. chatareus also have six or seven markings on its sides, whilst banded archerfish have four to five. [9] T. chatareus has 29–30 lateral line scales, compared to 33–35 in T. jaculatrix. [10] T. chatareus are also less common upstream than T. microlepis. [4]
Like other archerfish, Toxotes chatareus are able to spit streams of water to knock prey into the water. Despite lacking a neocortex, T. chatareus has well-developed visual cognition and pattern-recognition abilities which allow it to hit prey at distances of up to 150 centimetres (59 in) against complex backgrounds. [5] [11] Behaviour studies on the visual processing of T. chatareus have found that this species is able to recognize and distinguish between different human faces. [11] They feed during the day, consuming plant matter and insects. [5] They are omnivorous; [12] their diet comprises crustaceans and other fishes, as well as zooplankton, rotifers, cladocerans, and insects (terrestrial and aquatic). [4] T. chatareus has been called a "specialised insectivore" because it does not prey upon certain insects, particularly those that feed upon C4 plants. [13] Diet appears to be ontogenetic (varying with age); small fish do not consume any vegetative matter, whilst it comprises one-fourth of the diet of larger fish. [14] Diet also varies with location; when upstream, T. chatareus feed on insects, but when in the estuary, they feed on crustaceans. [15]
Toxotes chatareus reproduce by spawning. Spawning in T. chatareus are homochronal (females only spawn once per season) and iteroparous (spawning occurs more than once in a fish's lifespan). [6] Breeding in Toxotes chatareus occurs in the wet season. T. chatareus breed both in brackish and in fresh water. Spawning occurs in shallow, muddy lagoons. [6] Females lay about 20,000 to 150,000 buoyant eggs, each 0.4 millimetres in diameter. [5] Females become mature at about 19 centimetres (7.5 in), and males become mature at about 18 centimetres (7.1 in). [6] T. chatareus become reproductively active at 24 months. When they first hatch, larvae may be less than 4 mm in length; when they first feed, they are 5 mm and their mouthparts have become well-developed. [6] There is no parental care in this species. [6] Breeding in this species does not involve travelling downstream; nonetheless, populations may be affected by the construction of obstacles along rivers they inhabit. [6] T. chatareus has not been bred in captivity. [16]
Toxotes chatareus are found in India, Burma, Indonesia and New Guinea, and northern Australia. [6] [5] They are generally found in temperature ranges of 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F), [5] though they have been recorded at temperatures as high as 36 °C (97 °F) in the Alligator Rivers region and as low as 20.5 °C (68.9 °F) in the Burdekin river region; these are believed to be the upper and lower limits of their tolerance, respectively. [6] Brackish mangrove swamps form its main habitat, but T. chatareus are also found in freshwater rivers and streams. [5] It occurs in rivers of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the Kakadu area of the Northern Territory and Arnhem Land in Australia. [6] On the Mekong river, it may be found as far north as Thailand and Laos. [4] They are also found in the upper parts of the Burdekin river, somehow having overcome the Burdekin Falls. [6] T. chatareus are distributed more "patchily" in eastern Australia, and are less abundant. [6]
T. chatareus are known to occur in shaded areas with vegetation overhead, usually at the top layer of the water column. They are found only where there is an intact riparian area, as this is a major source of their food. [6] T. chatareus are usually not found in fast-flowing streams. [6]
Toxotes chatareus have a minor part in fisheries. They are sometimes caught by anglers and are described as "reasonable eating". [5] T. chatareus are caught and sold in markets, where they are often grouped with the banded archerfish and simply sold as "archerfish". [9]
T. chatareus are sometimes kept in the aquarium. [5] In aquaria, they can reach about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length, compared to 40 centimetres (16 in) in the wild. [9] They are one of only three archerfish species to be commonly traded (the others being T. jaculatrix and T. microlepis ). [9] They are placed in an aquarium in a minimum size of 100 centimetres (39 in) deep with a volume of 170 to 209 litres (37 to 46 imp gal; 45 to 55 US gal). [16] T. chatareus prefer brackish water and need a tall aquarium. [12] T. chatareus have the ability to "jump" out of the water, which in the wild is used to capture prey on low-hanging branches; [17] they are capable of jumping out of an aquarium that is too short or uncovered. [9] They are compatible with others of their species of similar size, but larger individuals may harass smaller individuals. [10] T. chatareus is fed live food at the surface, though it does occasionally take flake food; [16] because of this, caring for them is not done by beginners in most home aquaria. [12]
T. chatareus are fairly common and not considered endangered. However, the destruction of their mangrove swamp habitat [17] and increased fishing pressure [18] may pose a risk in the future. The construction of weirs and tidal barrages within its habitat may affect populations in rivers. [6] The growing population in Southeast Asia is also causing pollution to its habitat. [17]
A study found increased (greater than 0.5 μg/g) levels of mercury in four out of ten specimens sampled at Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. [13] This may have contributed to increased mercury levels in locals who consumed several species of fish from the lake, T. chatareus included. [13] Compared to the other fishes tested, T. chatareus displayed a high level of mercury. [13] Sediments from the nearby Porgera gold and silver mine are the source of this mercury; the cause of the high level at which the mercury was accumulated in T. chatareus is not known. [13]
The archerfish form a monotypic family, Toxotidae, of fish known for their habit of preying on land-based insects and other small animals by shooting them down with water droplets from their specialized mouths. The family is small, consisting of ten species in a single genus, Toxotes. Most species live in fresh water rivers, streams and pools, but two or three 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 Northern Australia and Melanesia.
The tinfoil barb is a tropical Southeast Asian freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae. This species was originally described as Barbus schwanenfeldii by Pieter Bleeker in 1853, and has also been placed in the genera Barbodes and Puntius. The specific epithet is frequently misspelled schwanefeldii.
The reedfish, ropefish, or snakefish, Erpetoichthys calabaricus, is a species of fish in the bichir family and order. It is the only member of the genus Erpetoichthys. It is native to fresh and brackish waters in West and Central Africa. The reedfish possesses a pair of lungs in addition to gills, allowing it to survive in very oxygen-poor water. It is threatened by habitat loss through palm oil plantations, other agriculture, deforestation, and urban development.
Monodactylidae is a family of perciform bony fish commonly referred to as monos, moonyfishes or fingerfishes. All are strongly laterally compressed with disc-shaped bodies and tall anal and dorsal fins. Unusually for fish, scales occur on their dorsal fins and sometimes on the anal fins. The pelvic fins are small, sometimes vestigial. They are of moderate size, typically around 25 centimetres (9.8 in) in length, and Monodactylus sebae can be taller than it is long, measuring up to 30 centimetres (12 in) from the tip of the dorsal fin down to the tip of the anal fin. These long, scaly fins have given them the name "fingerfishes". Most are silvery with yellow and black markings; the juveniles are especially attractive, and most species are popular as aquarium fish.
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Mycteroperca microlepis, the gag, gag grouper, velvet rockfish or charcoal belly, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. It comes from warmer parts of the West Atlantic, including the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. It is a drab, mottled-gray fish lacking the distinguishing features of most other groupers. Its pattern of markings resemble the box-shaped spots of the black grouper. It lacks the streamer-points on the tail fin that scamp and yellowmouth grouper have, and lacks yellow coloration around the mouth.
The dwarf pufferfish, also known as the Malabar pufferfish, pygmy pufferfish, or pea pufferfish, is a small freshwater pufferfish endemic to Kerala and southern Karnataka in Southwest India. They are popular in aquaria for their bright colours and small size. At a maximum length of 3.5 cm, dwarf pufferfish are one of the smallest pufferfish in the world. They closely resemble the related Carinotetraodon imitator, and the two can be difficult to distinguish. C. imitator was not recognised as a different species until 1999.
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Epinephelus summana, the summan grouper, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. It comes from the Eastern Indian Ocean that occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade.
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The banded archerfish is a brackish water perciform fish of the archerfish genus Toxotes. It is silvery in colour and has a dorsal fin towards the posterior end. It has distinctive, semi-triangular markings along its sides. It is best known for its ability to spit a jet of water to "shoot down" prey. Larger specimens may be able to hit prey 2 to 3 metres away. The banded archerfish may reach the displaced prey within 50 milliseconds of its hitting the water.
The smallscale archerfish is a perciform fish of genus Toxotes. As its name suggests, the scales of the smallscale archerfish are smaller than those of other archerfish. They reach a maximum length of 15 centimetres (5.9 in). Smallscale archerfish live in the tropical Indo-Pacific region and are potamodromous, moving between fresh and brackish water through their lifetimes.
Toxotes blythii, the clouded archerfish or zebra archerfish, is a perciform fish of genus Toxotes. It is found in rivers and estuaries in Myanmar, ranging from the lower Irrawaddy to the Tenasserim Division, including lower Sittaung and Salween. Unlike some other archerfish, it is restricted to fresh water. This species was formerly thought to be identical to T. microlepis. However, differences in structure and colouration caused the splitting of T. blythii into a new species. It is sometimes seen in the aquarium trade, but is generally rare.
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