Halfbeaks Have Arrived

[ac106]

I picked up at the LFS and spotted some halfbeaks. I believe they are Wrestling Halfbeaks but they are small and ID.ing them has been tough.

I bought 5 for my 30g. As they were in freshwater, I dipped them for about 2.5 hours. They seemed to be ok and were hanging out at the surface. I feed them a little freeze dried brine shrimp which they seemed to enjoy.

Today, on my way out, I only spotted 4. Hope they are all there when I get back.

They are in with 2 knight gobies, a violet goby, 2 orange chromides and a GSP. Everyone seemed to ignore them, so that’s good. I think I am done stocking this tank. When the GSP gets a little bigger its going into a tank by himself with higher salinity.

They seem like really cool fish and I def want to try breeding them. I have check out nmonks site on this and it seems very helpful.

Anyone have any? What tankmates do they have? Any problems?

 

[nmonks]

Congratulations on your new fish!

Halfbeaks are extremely cool little fish, and you're going to enjoy them. The biggest (in fact, only) problem is that they do not respond well to sudden changes in pH, hardness, or salinity. If you're going to lose any, it'll be in the 48-72 hours after buying them. After that, you're home free.

Wrestling halfbeaks can be easily distinguished from Celebes halfbeaks by looking at them from above. The "beaks" on Celebes halfbeaks are simple projections, while those of wrestlers have sem-transparent flanges along the edges, so the mouth looks a bit like a long, narrow scoop.

Wrestlers are quite small, so while they are easily fast enough to outpace any pufferfish of their own size, a semi-adult GSP may be too much for them.

Breeding isn't difficult, once the females are in condition. Frozen foods (or best of all live foods) seem to be the key. They aren't particularly fecund, and there seems to be around 3-4 months between broods. Gestation is about 2 months. Females seem to need to be quite mature before they will mate: I have 6-month old females they still haven't had a brood yet. (This refers to Celebes; I have only female wrestlers, so have no idea how they are with regard to breeding!)

Halfbeaks get along with most non-predatory fish. Ideally, give them some cover at the top of the tank, like floating plants or bits of overhanging wood. This helps them settle in an inhibits their jumping behaviour. Make 100% sure they cannot jump out, because they will try. I have lost 2-3 specimens that way, usually while doing things like big water changes or re-arranging rocks.

Cheers,

Neale