These are the main “flying fish.” They are in the family Beloniformes, a family of fish that have fins attached to a specific part of their body for maximum gliding distance. They primarily use this to escape from predators; however, they also do it for fun or when they’re swimming. They are pretty unrecognisable in the ocean, featuring an unremarkable grey pattern that looks like a large anchovy. Their main recognisable characteristic is their ‘wings,’ enormous pectoral fins that can be bigger than they are! They are found at the surface of most oceans, and take off like a goose, speeding up, then leaping, using their tail fin as a rudder. They are quite large, about a foot long, and can fly for almost a minute! They are commonly confused with another fish that is called the flying fish, but its real name is the flying gurnard, which can’t actually fly.

While not ballistic missiles, Hatchetfish are more like cruise missiles. They are small, oddly shaped fish in the family Gasteropelecida. They are native to the Amazon River basin. What makes them cruise missiles is not their speed when they take off, but their distance, leaping over 15 feet in a single jump. Considering that they’re only one inch long, they are the farthest leaping fish relative to their size. When trying to replicate this behaviour at home, I did successfully get my marbled hatchetfish, Carnegialla strigata, to jump a few feet. However, I don’t recommend you try this at home because it can stress out the fish. Their shape is that of a hatchet, thus giving them their name. The one in the picture is a marbled hatchetfish. There are 9 species of hatchetfish spread across three genera. Most are grey, but some have some striking black or brown. 

These are the family of fish that are referred to as “ballistic missiles.” They belong to the same family as flying fish, but are in completely different genera. They are found in brackish water all over the world. Some species are also kept as pets, as fish in the genus Norohaphus from Southeast Asia only grow to be about a few inches compared to the 1-2 feet that other halfbeaks do. As I don’t know too much about halfbeaks other than Norohaphus, I’ll mainly be talking about those. They are called “halfbeaks” because their mouths are long and pointy, with the top only half as long as the bottom. They are ballistic missiles because of their powerful tail fins and aero- and hydro- dynamic bodies. They are kept in the pet trade, and “should only be kept if you would like to subject your face to terror every time you feed the tank,” according to Denny’s Pet World, a local fish store. This is because they will leap at you the second you open the tank.

Even more ballistic than Halfbeaks, arowanas are members of the subfamily Osteoglossinae. They are found in the Amazon River, parts of Asia, and parts of Australia. They are also air-breathers, as I mentioned in my previous article. They grow very large, reaching about three feet long. They can leap up to ten feet out of the water in order to grab prey on branches. They can even catch birds mid-flight! There are a total of six species of arowana, four of which are silvery grey, one of which is black, and one is brightly coloured. Only half of these are commonly kept in the pet trade. They require large tanks with tight-fitting lids, making them hard to keep. There is also a species called the African Arowana, but that is related to Arapaimas and is not a true arowana.

While these small fish, also from the Amazon River, can’t fly in the traditional sense, their way of breeding makes them worthy of this list. While technically part of the same order as tetras, they are not actually tetras but pencilfish. They consist of the genus Copella. I have kept three species of this genus (C. arnoldi, C. callolepsis, and C. eigenmanni) out of the six. They breed by “Yeeting themselves out of the water onto a leaf and laying eggs,” as I once said when describing this to my friends. However, that’s not a completely accurate description, so let’s dive a little deeper. When the male and female are ready to lay eggs, they jump up to three feet high onto an overhanging leaf. Then, the female lays her eggs, and the male fertilises them. After that, the male chases the female away from the eggs (so she doesn’t eat them) and guards them.