Videos Of My Halfbeaks!

[Thaifighter]

Hi, guys!
I've been into this hobby for almost 40 year now, and have kept a lot of different species!
About 10 years ago some of my favorite fishes were the Halfbeaks!
I started with the most common one you see in the shops:
Dermogenys pusillus
I also saw some pictures of the beautiful "Celebes Halfbeak", Nomorhamphus liemi, and that was my "Dreamfish" for many years!
During a trip around South-East Asia in 1997 I visited the island of Sulawesi (Celebes) in Indonesia, and during a day-trip to Bantimurung waterfall I suddenly spotted some red and blackfinned halfbeaks on the surface and to my great joy I had "discovered" my "Dreamfish"!!!
There were plenty of fry about 1 cm long near to the shore of the river, and I managed to catch 6 of them with a small net and put them in a bottle!
On this island there are also many "Black Halfbeaks", Nomorhamphus towoeti, swimming around in rivers and streams, usually deeper down than other halfbeaks!
Needless to say I had my luggage filled with fryes, and managed to "smuggle" them with me back home on the airplane, and they all survived!
Once in my aquariums they soon growed and after 2-3 months they started to give birth to rather big babies, almost 2 cms long, and about 10 at the time!
I bred them for quite a few years, and later on I also found Nomorhamphus erbrardti and Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus in the shops, the latter one gave births to very tiny and thin fry only about 3 mm long!
Anyway I have since gone "dry" of Halfbeaks and are recently into wild Bettas.
Now I have only my old videos to show!

Here's one with my "Dreamfish", Nomorhamphus liemi:
The Dance of the Celebes Halfbeaks!
Showing a "fight" between 2 males, notice the male "Black Halfbeak" trying to intervene!

Here's another video, showing the other species of Halfbeaks that I have owned:
My Halfbeaks!

Hope you enjoy!

Thaifighter

 

[helterskelter]

Good videos and love the fish, i came across the clips yesterday from one of your other posts and the blacks are strange looking things i prefer the liemi.

 

[nmonks]

Very cool. Nice videos. I'm a bit of a halfbeak fan too. Can you tell us a bit more about how you kept the different species? Here in England any number of species get sold as N. liemi, and in my experience N. ebrardtii is so much more aggressive that it ends up killing off males of the other species!

Also, any info on breeding Hemirhamphodon?

Cheers, Neale

 

[Thaifighter]

Very cool. Nice videos. I'm a bit of a halfbeak fan too. Can you tell us a bit more about how you kept the different species? Here in England any number of species get sold as N. liemi, and in my experience N. ebrardtii is so much more aggressive that it ends up killing off males of the other species!

Also, any info on breeding Hemirhamphodon?

Cheers, Neale

Hi, Neale!
Thanx for your remarks on my videos!
I usually did keep them separately, but since I had lot of space in my big tank (535 liters) I let the adult Black and Liemis go together, mostly no problem except that the males had problems separating the different females, and would follow anyone!
N. erbrardti I didn't mingle with other halfbeaks, but it did go with different species of other fish withouth any problems!
Hemirhamphodon is a little bit more easy scared and would never come up to the glass when i approached with food like the other ones!
The fryes are also very tiny hardly noticable on the surface, and they don't drop all at once, but just 1 or 2 just now and then, so I had to scan the surface for fryes every day! Unfortunately i didn't succed with the Hemirhamphodon fryes, maybe because I didn't have small enough food for them I guess, they are also more sensitive to being moved!
I kept my halfbeaks in neutral tapwater without problems and they would eat anything.

Thaifighter

 

[nmonks]

mostly no problem except that the males had problems separating the different females, and would follow anyone!

Hah! My lone N. ebrardtii male does this, living with a female N. liemi more than twice his length! He is constantly "guarding" her, but she chases him away. In my experience, halfbeaks don't hybridise.

N. erbrardti I didn't mingle with other halfbeaks, but it did go with different species of other fish withouth any problems!

I agree, halfbeaks mix quite well. Mine live with two species of pufferfish, as well as tetras, glassfish, etc. The only problem I had was the big female Nomorhamphus ate the small male Dermogenys! Oddly, they do not (in my experience) eat their own babies.

One thing I find interesting is only the females are "intelligent". The males, all they do is fight. But the females learn new ways to get food. My female N. liemi, and her daughter too, learned to feed from the bottom of the tank. They roll on their sides, and flick bloodworms into the water with their stubby beaks. It is quite fun to watch.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Thaifighter]

Here's a picture of a pair Black Halfbeaks, Nomorhamphus towoeti!

A pair



Notice the upward bent beak on the male and the red scales under its dorsal fin!

Thaifighter

 

[CAC]

One thing I find interesting is only the females are "intelligent". The males, all they do is fight. But the females learn new ways to get food. My female N. liemi, and her daughter too, learned to feed from the bottom of the tank. They roll on their sides, and flick bloodworms into the water with their stubby beaks. It is quite fun to watch.

Cheers, Neale

Thats exactly what my female (and the dominant female before her) do! Its kinda all in one motion that they do it isnt it. They go sideways, then (as you say) use their beak and flick it up abit. Its ace! Like you say the males arent as intelligent and mine hasnt learned to and I dont think he will.
Thaifighter: Halfbeaks are my seccond favourite community/small fish, theyre great...Those black hlafbeaks you had are ace looking, really like them alot!

 

[nmonks]

Interesting. I wonder if they do this in the wild? I can't imagine so -- they live in vegetation up at the surface, feeding on plankton and insects, as far as I know. But it is curious how the males can't/don't do this -- perhaps their beaks make it impossible?

Neale

Thats exactly what my female (and the dominant female before her) do! Its kinda all in one motion that they do it isnt it. They go sideways, then (as you say) use their beak and flick it up abit. Its ace! Like you say the males arent as intelligent and mine hasnt learned to and I dont think he will.

 

[CAC]

Yeah it is interesting, I might try and find some referances to their natural behaviour. If I find anything of interest then ill post it up.

 

[Bki3zo]

Amazing!!!!!