New Halfbeaks!

[kphoebe]

I just brought myself 2 halfbeaks at the LFS.

I had no idea about keeping them, though i have seen them on the internet i have never once seen them in a store.

So i got them anyway.

Dont even know if theyre boy or girls, looking up about them it says theyre aggressive towards the same species but theyre in a 4foot so they should be okay i hope.

Any advice would help, lady at LFS was feeding them frozen brine shrimp so i got some. Just released them into the tank and put some flake in there, and they munched that down without a problem.

Gah, wish me luck!

 

[nmonks]

Those are Dermogenys siamensis, the species sold in the trade as the "silver" or "platinum" halfbeak. Like most Dermogenys, it's basically hardy and easy to keep.

The specimen in the top photo is a male. You can distinguish males by the rectangular, rather low-lying anal fin. Females have triangular anal fins that are much bigger than those on the males. Overall, females are much bigger than males, both in terms of length and bulkiness. Males are aggressive towards one another, but I have a school of about ten specimens of this species in a tank 1 m long and they do little more than chase one another. Mostly each male likes to hover underneath and just behind a female, presumably in an attempt to mate with her and/or drive away other males that might mate with her.

I've put all my halfbeak experience on my web page, here. In terms of diet, do make sure you get some algae-based flake food. Halfbeaks are reported to be carnivores in aquarium books, but people who have watched freshwater species in the wild tell me they take a lot of plant matter, including pollen of all things. So providing them with their "greens" may be useful.

Cheers, Neale

 

[halfmanhalffish]

I just bought 4 halfbeaks, and am really happy...what an awesome fish!!! I've got some small lilly plants floating around with them at the surface to make it interesting for them, and I think they're happy. A cooler fish I have yet to see

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum.

Congrats on the pick up. One of these days I will need to try some nice pike-like fish myself.

 

[TropicalLad21]

I want some of those! ...havnt seen any of these around unfortunately.

 

[Gingerj]

I purchased 3 from aquaticdesign in central London two weeks ago. They are rather docile, I bought them to have some top action, but they seem to dwell middle to top. When you notice them (as they are rather small), it add's a different dimension to your tank.

 

[WLuke93]

I bought 2 golden panchax's and the guy in the shop pointed out these halfbeaks, he said they would get on really well together, and i had never seen these before and they rather amused me, so i bought them, 3-4 days into into it, it seemed the panchax's just bullied and picked the halfbeaks off until they eventually died from stress.. does anyone here think it was a good idea to get both or did they get picked off through territory or something? :L

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Luke. I am afraid that your fish's response has already answered your question. It was not a good combination.

 

[NeonNeptune]

Those are pretty cool. Hopefully I will be able to move to down to Florida in a few years and get access to all these really cool fish but I just have to sit tight in the dead center of Alabama. The best we have are chain stores which only have a cool fish like once a year.