Halfbeak Help.

[STEVIE]

I'm getting rotten luck trying to keep a pair of halfbeaks.They are labelled as celebes and the male is brightly coloured with red tail and fins and a bluish black beak.The female is mainly silver with the matching beak.
I want to keep them in freshwater but the shop has them in their brackish section.I've tried to acclimatise them slowly by freshning the water bit by bit over a day.They seem to do ok for a few days but then die.
What am i doing wrong?

 

[nmonks]

Hey Stevie --

Halfbeaks are notoriously sensitive to sudden changes in water chemistry. Once settled in, they can be kept at anything you want, they just don't like changes. If they're in brackish, I'd set the tank up as brackish as well, and slowly reduce the salinity over a few days. You could easily keep Celebes halfbeaks at SG 1.005 for weeks if you had to, and they'd be fine. Gradual changes are not a problem. I've gone from pH 8 to pH 6.5 in about a week without problems.

When I first kept halfbeaks, I lost more than I saved. It was only once I figured out their needs that I got my success rate to 100%. Ensure the shop doesn't put too many fish per bag (I'd say no more than 2 per bag) so that the oxygen doesn't run out. Don't transport them on a cold/hot day, and make sure you get home quickly so the fish don't chill/bake in transit. Above all else, float the bag in your aquarium for at least an hour. Use a pin to make small holes in the bag, and let the water diffuse between the bag and the tank. Keep the aquarium covered! These fish jump.

Breeding is relatively easy once the babies are born; it's actually getting the mother to carry the fry to term that is difficult.

I have quite a bit more on these fish, as well as some links, on my web pages:

http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/halfbeaks.html

Cheers,

Neale

PS. I'd suggest getting two females to one male. They like to be in groups, but males squabble. The females may not be as colourful (though they improve as they age) but since they're twice the size of the males they are FAR more impressive fish. I think they look like piscine U-boats. They get very stocky and powerful looking, and become very attentive fish, staring at you when they think they'll get fed. The males never seem so alert, and basically just hold their territories, waiting for a chance to fight or mate (they don't seem to care either way).

 

[STEVIE]

Thanks so much for the link.
The particular type i bought were not pictured, but maybe they were, as you say there is much colour variation.I noticed the shop had lots of heavily gravid guppy females in with these and also with the pipefish.So i'm guessing this is because they eat the fry.
I think maybe i'll try again using a pin to make tiny holes in the bag so mixing the water very slowly.

 

[nmonks]

Are we talking about pipefish or halfbeaks? Halfbeaks are the things that look like mini pike, while pipefish are straightened out seahorses. Pipes are much more difficult to keep.

Anyway, good luck with the fish. Definitely do the pin-the-bag trick. Makes all the difference. Once you have your halfbeaks adapted to your water conditions, they're actually very hardy. Do try and identify your species though... there are one or two species that need either hard or brackish water, though most of the others will be fine in soft to neutral freshwater.

Cheers,

Neale

Thanks so much for the link.
The particular type i bought were not pictured, but maybe they were, as you say there is much colour variation.I noticed the shop had lots of heavily gravid guppy females in with these and also with the pipefish.So i'm guessing this is because they eat the fry.
I think maybe i'll try again using a pin to make tiny holes in the bag so mixing the water very slowly.

 

[STEVIE]

The pinhole thing seems to have partially worked.I bought a trio of 1 male and 2 females.One female halfbeak died the next day but the other 2 are doing ok so far.
The shop also does have a tankful of pipefish which are being kept in the same conditions as the halfbeaks in brackish water.
If i buy some can i adapt them to fresh water the same as the halfbeaks?

 

[nmonks]

Skip the pipefish. They're extremely difficult to keep. There have been some threads on them in the brackish section. Check them out.

None of the widely available halfbeaks _need_ brackish water. Do you know which species you have? The Celebes ones definitely don't need brackish. That might be your problem.

Cheers,

Neale