This fish will disguise itself as a dead leaf and capture its prey by hand

Dead leaf fish will disguise themselves as dead leaves to hunt for food.

Animals will disguise themselves in order to hunt for food or to avoid predators, so there is no shortage of animals in nature that are good at disguise, including the Amazon leaffish. As the name implies, this fish will disguise itself as a dead leaf to capture its prey.

Dead leaf fish are native to the Americas in countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Their external appearance resembles that of a dead leaf, even in subtle ways. For example, their chin is pointed, much like the petiole of a leaf.

In addition, their movements and behaviors resemble dead leaves. They bend and sway, often facing downward at an oblique angle, but rarely move vertically, as dead leaves do when floating in water.

When combined with their flattened, leaf-like bodies, they mimic dead leaves to such a degree that it is difficult to attract the interest of predators, who, after all, do not hunt dead leaves.

What’s more, their body color changes according to the situation, from dark brown to autumn yellow, which allows them to adapt to a variety of environmental conditions.

In addition to their amazing camouflage, dead leaf fish also have special hunting skills. If they are close enough to their prey, they will instantly extend their jaws and suck the water into their mouths, along with the prey.

Although their prey is usually only a third of its body length, but they can inhale the length of the prey up to two-thirds of the body length, but also in a day to eat the equivalent of their own body weight so heavy food.

The British “Practical Fish Keeping” (Practical Fish Keeping) website points out that, as a pet fish living in the aquarium, dead leaf fish is not good, because they need to be close to the natural conditions of the water, not only the temperature should be moderate, even the pH value also meet their needs.

Also, this kind of fish is difficult to change their preference for live bait because they are natural predators. And they react poorly to medication, so in case they get sick, using medication is the last resort.