My kids are getting Archer Fish...not goldfish!

According to Google, Tim LS and a number of others, on a rainy day in Vancouver the aquarium is amongst the top five things to do and see (the other 4 did not appeal at all and unfortunately the Museum of Anthropology at UBC was closed for renovations...it is supposed to be brilliant!!).

So on a slightly damp day I took myself back to Stanley Park to check it out. Being a bit of a nerd I spent 4.5 hours in the aquarium that makes AQWA look like a fish bowl. The place has a heavy BC influence but also boasts a large area dedicated to the Amazon and its giant freshwater fish which was amazing.

The stars of the aquarium were historically the orcas or killer whales...but since Free Willy they have made way for a family of beluga whales - you know those white whales that kind of look half dolphin, half whale.

Without wanting to bore you to much with the gory details that I spent 4.5 hours getting off on, here are a couple of pics from the aquarium.

For $20 it was a pretty good afternoon and after reading every information board in the place and looking into every tank I went home very satisfied having found some very non-descript looking fish in a lonely tank at the back of the aquarium - the Archer Fish.

Nature nerds amongst you will recognise these guys - they are a favourite with documentary makers because of their unique hunting technique. Archer Fish squirt water at insects on the trees, branches and roots above them to dislodge the insect and then catch it in the water for lunch.

Having spent way too much time reading the available information, staring hopefully into the tank that one might actually squirt water and watching the video of them squirting insects off a stick on the adjacent monitor...and rewinding and re-watching in slow motion the same 45 seconds of footage too many times...I attracted the attention of a very helpful young girl who worked for the aquarium.

She was a total Archer Fish nerd and was only too happy to share my excitement at seeing them. So much so she went out the back retrieved the feeding stick and a small plastic container with about 40 crickets in it. The stick was placed inside the tank above the water on some specially built brackets and the crickets were fed down a funnel and on to the stick poised about 30cm above the water line where they would meet their fate.

It didn't take long for the Archer Fish to get to work squirting the crickets so hard they would fly up off the stick and hit the top of the tank (another 30cm) before falling into the water. There was no love lost between the fish with a direct hit no guarantee that the fish next to you would not eat what you shot.

I shot the video below if you are interested...sorry about the length but you can't rush nature and my video editing software would not support the file type.