Hey all,
I have two halfbeaks in a 10 gallon aquarium with a adf, a few cories and a very small new yoyo loach. The male just started swimming right underneath the females belly and every once in a while lightly nudging it. Now that i think about it the female has been looking rather large for a few weeks now. Is she pregant? If so when should i expect to see the fry. how should i care for them etc... please help and thanks in advance!
p.s. i am pretty sure they are halbeak dermogenys pusilla or however you spell it...

Is that the fish?

These are not easy to say when their gonna give birth. the females dose get fat but this is not like a guppy getting fat.
But from your description it sounds more like a courtship routine happening.
How ever if you feel that she may be close to giving birth then you'll need to thing of putting her in a tank on her own, as the fry of these fish are quite small and fish love to eat them.

Good luck though as these are a fun fish to try to breed, and the fry are lovely little things.

Thank you for the reply, sometimes it is hard to get a question answered, i appreciate it. Yup thats her, she is looking rather plump, and i did read what he was doing was some kinda thing they do before mating so who knows...i wont have another tank until saturday it is a 55 gallon but even then it wont be cycled....would it be ok if i set up the 55 gallon and let it run for a couple days and just put her in there to see if she gives birth, i figure that even though its not cycled putting just one 1 inch fish in a new 55 gallon tank cant be that bad... or am i wrong?

55gallons is very big for just one fish

I have only saved one baby of these before, but a friend who get fry quite often uses small tanks, and very shallow as the fry seam to be very weak and sit on the bottom and quite lethargic at first.

Something 18x12x12 inches would be fine and have 4" of water at first then u can raise the water when doing water changes.

To help cycling fill the new tank with water from your main tank and add some rocks or decor, how ever with fish the fewer things the better, but you should think of getting some Java moss or something silular to help hide the fry.

ummmm, isn't the fish pictured a male?

Females have a full fan-like bottom fin whereas males have a bottom fin which looks torn off (which is what the picture suggests). My female halfbeaks are very very large compared to the males. Though not so distinguishable at a young age, the females become much larger after about 6 months.

Greg

yes it is a male but i was just makeing sure it was the right species.

Great! I have heard good things about you helterskelter and you have been extremely helpful, sometimes this hobby can be overwhelming especially when your new like me, because i want to give my fish a great life but dont always know how. yea anyways just know that you probably just help ensure the next generation of some cool halfbeaks. Thanks so much i will let you know how it goes! Oh by the way is it true female halfbeaks can store sperm for several months that way they can have several batches of fry (broods?)?

My bad!

Something seemed fishy...it ended up being my understanding!

Greg

About storing sperm as far as i know they don't, they need to breed after each brithing.
But Neal Monks should know for sure i would think.

GL-P, Dont worry i do that my self many times

Thanks for the promo!

I'm not aware of anything suggesting halfbeaks can produce multiple broods from a single mating. Frankly, they don't even produce very large broods even immediately after mating, and as the females get older the brood size seems to decline quite sharply (in aquarium conditions, at least).

As for what a pregnant Dermogenys looks like, here's one about 24 hours before giving birth. Click the image for more.



Cheers, Neale

Thank neale! I am not sure why i thought that but i might just be crazy anyway, as always you have been very helpful...By the way do you know when i should move my female into a breeding net...they spawned about 2 days ago so i am not sure when i should move her or if i should even do that at all?

Never. Surest way to cause a miscarriage in halfbeaks is to put the female in a trap. Either move her to another tank (8-10 gallons is fine) or put lots of hornwort in the aquarium and check after 3-4 weeks for newborn pups. Scoop 'em out, and then rear them in a trap/net for a couple of weeks (if you want) or take them straight to another aquarium. Baby halfbeaks are very easy to rear because they are so large. The tricky bit is getting a safe "delivery".

Cheers, Neale

Great, good thing i didnt move her, she seems happy and i am keeping her well fed and doing 10-20 percent water changers. My next quesion for you is what is hornworth, I am gueesing its some kind of plant but any input on that would be great, also, any extra advice to ensure a good safe "delivery" would be excellent! thanks neale and as you say Cheers!
oh by the way what is that picture of by your name, i have always wondered but dont know?

Yes. Ceratophyllum spp. There are two species in the trade, Ceratophyllum demersum, usually sold as a pond plant, and Ceratophyllum submersum, sold as a tropical. Ceratophyllum demersum is a bit more "rigid" in texture when compared with Ceratophyllum submersum but otherwise they are very similar. Both can be grown very easily under almost any water or lighting conditions. I leave some Ceratophyllum demersum in a garden pond overwinter and it seems to be fine even under ice. The good thing with hornwort is it forms a thick blanket at the top of the tank where the fry can hide but the bigger fish cannot go. Because it needs little light and is very hardy, it is also ideal for floating in open-topped but otherwise unilluminated aquaria where you are rearing the fry. Hornwort also has some allelopathical properties, i.e., it actively suppresses the growth of algae (but not blue-green algae). Best of all, hornwort is cheap. You can buy bunches of the stuff as a pond plant for as little as one pound.

Not much. Provided the female halfbeak isn't stressed, the babies will come out in their own good time. Once the fry are born, and assuming they're fully matured, they're easy to rear. So the main thing is keep her happy and well fed, and let nature take its course.

It's Kosh, a Vorlon. What you're seeing is his disguise. He doesn't want to be recognised. By whom? By everyone!

Until the hour of scampering,

Neale

Oh i get it, sorry i dont watch the show I am going to pick up some hornworth in a few days...how should i feed the fry can you explain a little bit about the food also as i will probably have no idea what it is, although i think i saw fry food for livebearing fish...hmmm??

Well you missed out. It's brilliant.

By and large halfbeak fry show no interest in liquid fry food, so skip that. Sometimes they take powdered flake foods though. I had good luck with Hikari First Bites. Frozen lobster eggs (from a marine aquarium supplier) are also taken, but you need to use a pipette to squirt a few eggs at a time towards each fish. Once the eggs sink, they're ingnored! But what you really need is live food of some type. Pond foods work well, such as small daphnia and very small mosquito larvae. Newly hatched brine shrimps and microworms would probably work well, too. You only need to fuss like this for the first few days. Within a week they're taking regular live daphnia, and soon afterwards frozen bloodworms as well. Do look over my halfbeak breeding diary if you haven't seen it already.

Cheers, Neale