Getty Image / DeAgostini
I’d never heard of the Archerfish until earlier this year and I came to learn about it in a way that I’m confident 0% of you will care about: a kid’s TV show I was watching with a toddler. That show, the Wild Kratts, had a whole episode about Archerfish and how this fascinating fish species snipes prey out of thin air by spitting water at it.
It’s one thing to see those Archerfish as animated creatures while watching TV with a little kid and another to see them in action like this clip below where the fish spits into a BBC Earth cameraman’s eye deep in the forests of Indonesia.
Watch closely and this Archerfish snipes cameraman Mitch Buckley in the eye while they were filming in the Raja Ampat mangrove habitat:
Fun Facts About Archerfish
Archerfish, not to be confused with Anglerfish, actively shoot their prey down whereas Anglerfish use little dangling luminescent ‘baits’ to lure in prey.
Their mouths work like a squirt gun and their eyes face forward which gives them enhanced binocular vision to shoot down their prey. Also, there are six species of Archerfish so it is sort of a ‘one size fits all’ name we’re using here but they all have similarly adapted traits.
As far as fish go, they’re tiny. The largest Archerfish in the game is going to max out at 12 inches. And as is evidenced from the video, their prey mainly consists of insects they shoot down from the sky.