Fishes / Habitat
The freshwater butterflyfish has a flattened, upward-facing mouth and broad, wing-like pectoral fins that give it its name, spending nearly all its time motionless at the water's surface waiting to am
The freshwater butterflyfish has a flattened, upward-facing mouth and broad, wing-like pectoral fins that give it its name, spending nearly all its time motionless at the water's surface waiting to ambush insects that land or fall in. It comes from West and Central Africa and reaches around ten to twelve centimetres.
Its large pectoral fins are genuinely functional rather than just decorative: this fish can leap clear of the water and glide short distances using them, a real adaptation for catching flying insects and escaping predators, similar in principle to the hatchetfish covered later in this series. Ichthyologists actually debate the precise mechanics, with some describing it as a true glider that wiggles its fins mid-air and others as a powerful ballistic jumper rather than a sustained glider, but either way the leaping ability itself is genuine and well documented, not an exaggeration.
A single fish or small group does well in a tank of eighty litres or more, with plenty of surface area and floating plants that mimic the still, vegetated surface waters it favours in the wild. A tightly fitting lid is essential, since this fish is a genuinely strong and frequent jumper.
It tolerates a reasonable range of water conditions, including typical Indian tap water, and prefers calm surface water rather than strong filtration flow disturbing the top of the tank.
In the wild it feeds almost exclusively on insects that land on the water's surface, and in the aquarium it does best on floating pellets, crickets, and other surface-delivered live or frozen food, since it rarely if ever feeds from the middle or bottom of the tank.
It is a genuine predator of any fish small enough to fit in its considerable mouth, so small surface-dwelling tankmates such as small danios or rasboras are at real risk, while larger, deeper-swimming community fish that stay out of its strike zone make safer companions.
Article content © Ravi Teja. All rights reserved.
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