Breeding Halfbeaks

[JohnRossDele]

im restocking my tank on sunday (240 litre juwel rio) and im getting 6 half beaks, i've looked at a couple of sites and they mainly say that you should start with a young group and feed them on a diet of foods containing vitamins A & D.

is there any more information on breeding them that anyone came across that i should know??

any information given will be gladly appreciated
Many Thanks, JRD

 

[nmonks]

Halfbeaks aren't too difficult to breed, but they do seem to lose fertility over time so setting up a colony works best. Celebes halfbeaks at least seem to reach sexual maturity later than poeciliid livebearers, but still quite quickly, maybe six to nine months in the case of the females. Males work best in large groups, so try to keep at least three, and at least as many females, to minimise bullying. One thing about keeping males in groups is that the dominant ones develop much stronger colouration than they do when kept alone. My dominant specimens have red and black as well as blue markings.

Diet is a bit uncertain. Fishbase reports that terrestrial insects are the prime prey of Nomorhamphus species, and they certainly do enjoy meaty foods as well as houseflies and fruit flies. But halfbeaks generally tend towards the herbivorous, and there's some reports of even the freshwater ones eating things like pollen. So I'd be open minded on this, and offer a range of foods. Mine eat flake, including Tetra vegetarian fish food, so that's a good way to give them a rounded diet.

There are some more of my observations on these fish and breeding them at the links below.

Cheers, Neale

http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/Halfbeaks/halfbeaks.html
http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/Halfbeaks/halfbeakbreeding.html

 

[JohnRossDele]

Halfbeaks aren't too difficult to breed, but they do seem to lose fertility over time so setting up a colony works best. Celebes halfbeaks at least seem to reach sexual maturity later than poeciliid livebearers, but still quite quickly, maybe six to nine months in the case of the females. Males work best in large groups, so try to keep at least three, and at least as many females, to minimise bullying. One thing about keeping males in groups is that the dominant ones develop much stronger colouration than they do when kept alone. My dominant specimens have red and black as well as blue markings.

Diet is a bit uncertain. Fishbase reports that terrestrial insects are the prime prey of Nomorhamphus species, and they certainly do enjoy meaty foods as well as houseflies and fruit flies. But halfbeaks generally tend towards the herbivorous, and there's some reports of even the freshwater ones eating things like pollen. So I'd be open minded on this, and offer a range of foods. Mine eat flake, including Tetra vegetarian fish food, so that's a good way to give them a rounded diet.

There are some more of my observations on these fish and breeding them at the links below.

Cheers, Neale

http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/Halfbeaks/halfbeaks.html
http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/Halfbeaks/halfbeakbreeding.html

thanks mate, very informative