Easy Care of Hatchet Fish

Gentle, plain-looking, unassuming hatchet fish might not add much color to your aquarium -- they're usually shades of silver or copper -- but they almost surely will add something theatrical. Hatchet fish can actually fly. Hatchet fish are fun to watch, and they are generally easy to care for -- provided you have a secure tank.

  1. The Flying Fish

    • Most varieties of flying fish are actually long-range jumpers. But hatchet fish, with their thin, axe-shaped bodies, actually flap their winglike pectoral fins to fly through the air as far as 4 feet. This means the 2.5-inch silver hatchet fish in your home aquarium should have an aquarium of at least 20 gallons with a tight-fitting -- and preferably convex -- cover. Hatchets will stay near the top of the water, so the larger the surface area, the better.

    The Water

    • Hatchets are freshwater fish, highly sensitive to water temperature and pH balance. Keep the water at 74 to 81 degrees Fahrenheit, or 24 to 27 degrees Celsius, and a pH of 6 to 7. Like many mid-temperature freshwater fish, hatchets are vulnerable to white spot disease, a parasitic disease that can rapidly debilitate fish. The effects are worse when the fish are stressed.

    Stress Reduction

    • Being shy, hatchets are easily stressed, particularly in the company of some other types of fish. They are much calmer, however, in groups of four to eight hatchets. Good companion fish for hatchets are those that tend to swim at the mid or lower levels of the tank, such as tetras or killifish. Also, hatchets, who are native to the Amazon River basin, prefer a dark background and surface plants where they can retire to feel more secure.

    Feeding

    • Hatchet fish fly in the wild to snare insects out of the air. But keeping live insects, such as the hatchet's favored mosquito, around your aquarium is not a great idea. Fortunately, hatchets love insect larvae just as much as insect adults, and they even do great with freeze-dried larvae. Mosquito larvae and small crustaceans are favorites. Pellets that sink are not recommended, but floating flakes are fine, particularly if hatchets are not competing with other fish.