any one keep halfbeaks?

[chaibill]

Nomorhamphus liemi
Celebes Halfbeak
3.5 inches (9 cm)

or

Dermogenys pusilla
Wrestling Halfbeak
3 inches (8cm)
this one says brackish in one book and fw and bw in another book

it says some timeds they break their "beaks" on the side of the tank to put plants a long the sides

 

[chaibill]

any one have luck with these

 

[Ruben Tolon]

I kept some halfbeaks (unsure of the species, although I suspect Dermogenys pusilla or a related species) a few times over the years and they seem very hardy and tend to do well in both freshwater and light brackish. I never had the problem with the broken beaks, but they tended to be territorial with any other surface area fishes, including other halfbeaks. I found them interesting and had them in my shelldweller cichlid tank for about a year.

 

[15GallonWonder]

I had three half beaks about five years ago, and they were a very interesting, and fun fish to raise....relatively easy as well. They spend their entire day cruising just below the surface and are experts at picking floating insects and food off the surface of the water, they go crazy for frozen blood worms but will eat most anything that lands on the surface. I suspect that in the wild they eat mostly insects that fall onto the water, so I often dropped bugs that I found outside or ones that got inside(spiders, silverfish, ants, etc) into the tank, and they instantly and instinctively attacked and ate any offering. Very cool fish, easy to raise. One of mine died however from eating a giant mass of snail eggs to the point that it ruptured its stomach, so beware of that. Good luck.

 

[chaibill]

oh wow great thanks ayou 2 i am going to try them out should i get 1 or 2 and the female look the same rifht just not as musch color in the finds sorry about the typos the bacckspace is not workinf gon the keyboard and they will be fin in my 55 gal ther aere 3 pearl danios and other fish but not much at surface