Hello

I have an archer, about an inch or so, and he tends to darken the lower half of his body at times, and at times it is clear silver. Any clues as to whether there is a problem ? He eats well, very aware of people around hence darts across and so on. He is in a 6ftx2ftx2ft tank and his tank mates are tinfoil, gorami, paradise, synodontis, redtail shark.

Aquarium Gallery - Archer

Warm Regards
Siva

Have you read about their characteristics? Maybe this is something they do on their own? He looks healthy from that pic.

i dont know about archer fish to answer this question but my honey gaurami does this same thing

he completely blacks from nose and all along bottom when he is super happy or whn he is getting ready to fight

may be archer fish coloration works the same way

__________________
~ Max
29 Gallon Tall Planted and running Eheim 2217
~~ a German Blue ram pair, 9 Harlequin rasboras, 2 octilincus, 2 Dwarf neon rainbows and a honey sunset Gaurami

16 gallon Bowfront tank ~~ 3 Neon Tetras, red tailed shark, 1 angel (its a real bully), BN pleco and an albino BN pleco.

probably does it as some kind of defensive show or change of mood. Other times it could be what kind of background he's around.. just to blend in a bit. sounds like it may use that as he goes in shade/lighted areas... but its just a guess.

Archers do prefer brackish..... just saying.

True Archer is a brackish water fish, but what i found was, it swims across to totally fresh and can also handle salty water. Apart from the bottom half getting dark at times, he is perfectly normal.

In case anyone in this group maintained in their aquarium, an archer, would help in understanding their observations as well. Appears Archer may not be commonly kept in aquariums