Fish Bits
Photos, visitors, weird and wonderful specimens, news from the field.
Our Bloggers
Mark McGrouther
Collection Manager, Ichthyology
Amanda Hay
Technical Officer, Ichthyology
Archives
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Fish Bits
- Apr 2012
- Mar 2012
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Feb 2012
- 'Water squirting' Common Lionfish
- This week in fish: Warty Anglerfish
- This week in Fish: Incredible Barreleye and a huge shark tooth
- Incredible Barreleye video
- This week in Fish: Shark beaching and Cobbler Wobbegong
- The Power of X-rays
- Southern Garfish, Hyporhamphus melanochir
- This week in Fish: First specimen of Denise's Pygmy Seahorse
- May 2012
- Jan 2012
- Dec 2011
- Nov 2011
- Sep 2011
- Aug 2011
- Jul 2011
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Jun 2011
- This week in Fish: Pacific Leaping Blenny
- Spikefin Goby, Discordipinna griessingeri
- Huge Oarfish in the shallows
- Dusky Whaler juveniles in Sydney 2011
- This week in Fish: Moorish Idols and sponge eaters
- Which fishes eat sponges?
- This week in Fish: Back to reality
- Kermadec wrap-up
- This week in Fish: Baby Batfish
- May 2011
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Apr 2011
- This week in Fish: Pineapplefish and Surf Sardine
- Dolphins at Manly
- This week in Fish: Whale Shark sighting
- Whale Shark in Botany Bay - April 2011
- This week in Fish: Lots of sharks and Fin Forensics
- Fin forensics and the fish collection
- This week in Fish: undescribed anglerfish and bellowsfish
- This week in Fish: Find a fish launched
- Mar 2011
- Feb 2011
- Jan 2011
- Dec 2010
- Nov 2010
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Oct 2010
- This week in Fish: Scalloped Hammerhead
- This week in Fish: Flyingfishes in flight
- This week in Fish: Grow a backbone!
- Grow a backbone!
- This week in Fish: Suckling fish
- A fish that suckles its young
- This week in Fish: Baby shark cannibals
- What's in a name?
- BBC Life - Weedy Seadragon footage
- This week in Fish: White Shark and sleeping fishes
- Deepsea trench research trip
- This week in Fish: Toxin glands and a meal to die for
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Sep 2010
- This week in Fish: Eel with a 'fishing rod tongue'
- This week in Fish: Candiru and Slingjaw Wrasse
- Slingjaw Wrasse feeding
- Humphead Maori Wrasse - up close and personal
- Candiru - careful where you go...
- This week in Fish: Deepsea anglerfishes and the Lilac-tip Basslet
- Psychedelic frogfish makes a splash
- This week in Fish: Shrek Fish, Frill and Megamouth Sharks
- Asian Sheepshead Wrasse
- Oct 2011
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Aug 2010
- Frill Shark in Japan
- Megamouth Shark movie
- This week in Fish: Fantastic fish feeding footage
- Fantastic fish feeding footage
- This week in Fish: BBC Life and Banggai Cardinalfish
- BBC Life - Convict Fish footage
- BBC Life - Flyingfish footage
- BBC Life - Sailfish feeding
- Swimming with a Whale Shark
- White Sharks aren't mindless killers
- Fangtooth feeding
- Sandtiger Shark Ultrasound
- This week in Fish: Spitting archerfish and 14 movies
- Archerfishes - sharpshooters of the mangroves
- More news from Pelagos
- Sixgill Shark attacks bait
- This week in Fish: Old content becomes new
- Jul 2010
- Jun 2010
- May 2010
- Apr 2010
- Mar 2010
Archerfishes - sharpshooters of the mangroves
Archerfishes are well known for their ability to shoot a jet of water at insects in overhanging branches. So how do they do it?
Adaptations to the mouth give archerfishes their impressive expectorating ability. A deep groove runs along the roof of the mouth (see image to the right). A ridge along the top of the tongue fits into this groove. When an archerfish shoots a jet of water, it raises its tongue against the roof of the mouth forming a tube. The gill covers are then quickly closed, forcing water along the tube. The tip of the tongue acts as a valve. The BBC filmclip below shows archerfish in action along with a velvet worm firing streams of glue.
Mark McGrouther
, Collection Manager, Ichthyology
Last Updated:
Tags fishes, ichthyology, archerfish, spit, Toxotes, chatareus, Toxotidae, jaculatrix,
Mouth of a Sevenspot Archerfish View full size
Mark McGrouther
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