Do archerfish need to be able to spit?

[Caveden]

If they're banning so many reptiles, I'm surprised they didn't ban red eared sliders either. Huge invasive species because kids release pets they're bored with into the wild, and a Salmonella threat from small turtles (which may apply to all turtles though).

If I’m not wrong the red eared slider and Malaysian box turtle are native to Singapore. So they didn’t ban it. Yah however it’s now becoming a huge problem cause Singaporean’s release their pet red eared sliders everywhere into reservoirs and lakes where they aren’t meant to be.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

If I’m not wrong the red eared slider and Malaysian box turtle are native to Singapore. So they didn’t ban it. Yah however it’s now becoming a huge problem cause Singaporean’s release their pet red eared sliders everywhere into reservoirs and lakes where they aren’t meant to be.

Pretty sure sliders are North American.

"The red-eared slider is native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico, but has become established in other places because of pet releases, and has become invasive in many areas where it outcompetes native species."

Red-eared slider - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I can't say I'm surprised on the second part though.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Bump! I just figured out a way for archerfish to spit at their food in a non-paludarium setup that could be used if spitting at their food is mandatory for sufficient enrichment (although I still don't know for sure whether it is, given what I mentioned about predatory species and live/dead food).

I'll train them to associate a tea brewer with food by feeding them out of it. Then, when they have it fully associated with food, I'll hold it full of food above the water and only empty the food into the tank if their jets of water hit the tea strainer.
(This will of course require missed jets to be dried up, but that's only a small price to pay).

I figure most fishkeepers with a non-paludarium setup who want archerfish could do this.

By the way DrownedFishonFire , how did your archerfish get along with your loaches? Mine will, of course, be going in with loaches, so I'd like to know.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Get a glass pane over the tank and put the tea strainer with food in on it. If the water jet hits the right area, drop the food in. No water to clean up.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Thanks! That's an even better way to do it.

 

[Friller2009]

I don’t know why you’ve made it so complicated. They don’t need to spit to survive. They don’t really spit in the wild most of their food is from in the water and when they do rarely actually spit out of the water and knock a bug down, (a bug not fish pellets) do they eat it. I’m not sure if i’ve Said this already but at an aquarium, SeaLife QLD, there is an archer fish/AUL exhibit. It is a very large tank, I would estimate that it would be in the realm of close to 3000+ gallons. In this they had some fully grown Australian bass as well, about 45cm. They also had a thing where there were live crickets on the branches that surrounded the tank (i’ll Try to find a picture of it) so that the archer fish could spit and catch their own food. These archers were the size of dinner plates and bigger then the bass. I witnessed a feeding of pellets and the archers dominated all the other fish and got most of the food (as archers do).

Archers are also schooling fish, and I don’t know what size tank you are doing, (6x2x2?) but to replicate the Amount that archers school in, you would need quite a large tank as you would need 8+ archers. They are also super aggressive and I don’t know how big your loaches get, but these guys would down kuhli loaches for breakfast.


Another question is arowan jump out of the water to catch food, so therefore do we need to allow them to do that?

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Bump! I just figured out a way for archerfish to spit at their food in a non-paludarium setup that could be used if spitting at their food is mandatory for sufficient enrichment (although I still don't know for sure whether it is, given what I mentioned about predatory species and live/dead food).

I'll train them to associate a tea brewer with food by feeding them out of it. Then, when they have it fully associated with food, I'll hold it full of food above the water and only empty the food into the tank if their jets of water hit the tea strainer.
(This will of course require missed jets to be dried up, but that's only a small price to pay).

I figure most fishkeepers with a non-paludarium setup who want archerfish could do this.

By the way DrownedFishonFire , how did your archerfish get along with your loaches? Mine will, of course, be going in with loaches, so I'd like to know.

Oh mine was so skittish anytime i opened curtains they would bang the glass, anytime one of the loaches came up for morsels unexpectedly they would scatter and bang the glass but usually loaches stayed out of their way the loaches did not target the archers and the archers learned where to stay whenever the loaches wanted to play. I would re-do how I raised them and have TV downstairs running so they were used to human noises as I was not home 18 hours a day. But now isnt a good time for me to start a new group of them with my current inhabitants they will have a heart attack lol.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Forgot to respond to Friller2009. But regardless of whether you mentioned it already, that's a good description of the SeaLife exhibit, so thank you for including it in your comment.
The rest of what you mention has been taken care of (I now know that spitting doesn't seem to be necessary for their enrichment, I will be getting a group, the kuhli loaches have been moved out of the tank they will go, and such). Appreciated that you included it as well, nonetheless.