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on the profiles it says that they are shy and peaceful, but they will eat other fishes that are smaller. right?

so i saw some in a lfs for about 2.49 each, (not sure what type, but they were either really blueish-grayish color)(unlike the photo in the profile)

anyway, i am looking for something to add to my gourami/otto/harli tank, and wondering if this would be a good fit.

in a the 20high to replace the chocolate gouramies

Most (if not all) Halfbeaks are brackish or saltwater fish, therefore rendering them incompatible with the setup you mentioned.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Half Beaks - Family Hemirhamphidae. An interesting and odd family of livebearing fishes that consists of some quirky species.

First of all, the best known Half-Beak, Dermogenys pusilus, which is a nice small fish, will be problematic in your setup because it is now considered to be an obligate brackish water fish. It certainly won't breed unless it is in brackish water of around 10% marine strength, and for maintenance should be given this also, making it incompatible with your existing stock.

However, if you can find a different species, namely Nomorhamphus celebensis or one of its close relatives, then these are true freshwater Half-Beaks. No less a personage than Hans-Joachim Richter wrote an article on these fishes for the February 1978 edition of TFH - the article is on pages 4 to 14.

Richter was able to draw upon wild collection data obtained by Frau Edith Korthaus, who first reported the existence of the species in 1975 in a German publication, Das Aquarium. The fish is relatively adaptable because during the dry season, the reported parameters are:

• pH 7.2-7.5

• Total hardness 10-12 DH

• Carbonate hardness 9-11 DH

• Temperature 25 degrees C

This changes drmatically during the rainy season, during which the following parameters are reported:

• pH 6.5

• Total hardness 7 DH

In the wild, the fish lives upon insects - stomach contents from wild cuaght fishes revealed that the species feeds extensively on flying ants and assorted small to medium sized flies.

While the fish is tolerant of a wide range of water chemistry parameters (Richter cites in the article that the fish will breed in water as hard as 22 DH) the critical maintenance aspect for this fish is clean water. Water changes need to be frequent for this species.

If you can supply wingless fruit flies as live food for these fishes, they are greatly appreciated, and will condition the fishes to breed much more readily than would be the case if they are fed on other foods. in fact, live foods are going to be needed at least intermittently to keep this fish healthy, and if you can provide a full time supply of wingless fruit flies, so much the better.

Be advised that [1] the fish will probably be hard to obtain, [2] the fish will require a fair amount of live food to be cultivated [3] it requires frequent water changes (possibly as often as twice per week) and [4] as a livebearer, it will, if conditions are to its liking, produce fry. If you decide to take on this oddity, then do so only if you're prepared to devote a fair amount of tine to a relatively high level of maintenance.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

yea, probably best not gotten.

still looking for something, anything come to mind?

i was thinking of getting a pair of vartius platies, i had them recently and love nice fish.