Archerfish Take Aim: Keeping Verb Tenses Steady

Archerfish: The Fish That Shoots

1Imagine a fish that hunts with a squirt of water. The archerfish lives in warm waters in parts of Asia and Australia, often where rivers meet the sea. Its name comes from the way it hunts, like an archer shooting arrows. Many archerfish have silvery bodies with dark bands on their sides. They swim close to the surface and watch the plants that hang over the water. When an insect landed on a leaf, the fish gets ready to fire.

2To shoot, an archerfish presses its tongue against a groove in the roof of its mouth. Together, the tongue and the groove make a narrow tube. Then the fish quickly snaps its gill covers shut, and a jet of water shot out of its mouth. If the aim is good, the water knocks the insect off the leaf and into the water below. If the shot misses, the fish can try again.

3Aiming is not as easy as it sounds. Light bends when it passes from air into water, so a bug above the surface is not exactly where it seems to be. Young archerfish miss many of their shots at first. They have to keep trying. With practice, they learned to hit their targets more often. Some archerfish even leap out of the water to grab insects that sit just above the surface.

4Shooting the insect is only half the job. As soon as the bug drops, the archerfish swims quickly to the spot below it. Other fish nearby may try to snatch the meal first, so speed matters. A quick archerfish gulps down its prize before another fish got close. Archerfish also eat insects that fall into the water on their own, so they do not always need to shoot.

5When I first read about archerfish, I did not believe that a fish could aim so well. I thought it was just a made-up story. Now I know that these fish are skilled hunters. Someday, I will visit an aquarium and watch an archerfish take aim with my own eyes.