Halfbeak Jaw Dislocated? 5/26/10 Hello Crew, <Hello,> I have a month-old Halfbeak fry (Dermogenys pusilla) that's had its mouth stuck in the open position for a week now (please see attached photos). <Yikes!> This happened after I fed it some crushed algae wafer, I believe one of the pieces was too large. <Oh dear.> Is it possible that it has dislocated its jaw? <Certainly possible.> It tries very hard to eat, but can only manage tiny amounts of soft, frozen foods. <Indeed.> The poor thing is growing thinner. <I can well imagine.> Do you think it would be best to euthanize it, or is there a possibility that this will resolve? <It's unlikely to resolve itself without intervention. You might try, very gently, to click the upper jaw back down. But fish bones are very delicate, so this has to be done very carefully. Use something padded, like a Q-tip, to put pressure on the upper jaw rather than anything pointy. You might even use your fingertips, if you feel confident enough.> My water tests are as follows: 0,0,5. KH:9 GH:13. Ten-gallon fry tank. Thanks for your help, Judy <Good luck, Neale.>

Re: Halfbeak Jaw Dislocated? 5/27/10 Hello Neale, <Judy,> I anesthetized the little Halfbeak with clove oil and tried to push the upper jaw down, however, it would not stay in place, so I went ahead and euthanized it. <Oh, too bad.> On a happier note, my female Halfbeak looks ready to give birth again... <Cool! Halfbeaks are amongst my favourite fish. I have a piece about them in one of the upcoming 'Aquarium Fish' issues, so keep your eyes peeled.> Thanks so much for your advice. Judy <No problems. Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Very Sick Black Molly... (RMF? Ever seen this type of prolapsed vent on a Molly?) Nomorhamphus liemi 7/8/09 Hi Bob, <Neale> Images attached. Includes alternative version with the prolapsed vent highlighted and labeled. These are gratis for your use on WWM where relevant. Cheers, Neale Re: Very Sick Black Molly... (RMF? Ever seen this type of prolapsed vent on a Molly?) 7/8/09 Hi Bob, Have sent the images along. <Have seen. Thank you Neale> For what it's worth, in the case of this halfbeak, by guess is that hybridisation might be the culprit. Within the genus Nomorhamphus, there's a spectrum of degrees of viviparity, from simply ovoviviparity through egg/embryo cannibalism to proper placental connections. Since they're all a closely related species flock from a single island, I wonder if closely related species can fertilise one another, but as the embryos develop various failing develop if the connection with the mother isn't "just so"? <Possibly> It's a shame exporters make no effort at all to offer a single species in each batch of fish, and this may further explain the supposed difficulty of breeding halfbeaks in captivity. Cheers, Neale <Such is both the nature of the trade presently, and the broader nature of humans... We are "fighting" this gradient... Cheers, BobF>

Halfbeak care and purchasing 12/16/08 Hi all! Great website! I've been doing lots of reading here. I currently have a slightly brackish, planted 29 gallon tank with platies, mollies, and a Krib. I was at a local pet store today that sometimes gets a few oddballs and they had one lone halfbeak. It was labeled as a "Celebes Halfbeak" but it looks almost exactly like this picture: http://www.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=halfbeak1 <That fish appears to be the so-called Silver or Platinum Halfbeak, a species I believe to be Dermogenys siamensis. The Celebes Halfbeak is Nomorhamphus liemi. You can easily distinguish Dermogenys from Nomorhamphus. For a start, Dermogenys halfbeaks are generally smaller and more slender in build. Dermogenys halfbeaks also have longer "beaks". When viewed from above, Dermogenys halfbeaks have semi-transparent "flanges" on either side of the lower jaw, so that there's a scoop-like construction that is presumably used to guide food particles into the mouth. Nomorhamphus halfbeaks lack these flanges, and generally have short, stubby beaks that curl downwards in some species. Nomorhamphus have a stocky body shape, and the females especially are very sturdy-looking. Nomorhamphus also seem to be happier swimming at different levels of the aquarium, even the bottom, whereas Dermogenys rarely go much below the top of the tank.> Straight beak, silver body, red and yellow fins. It's a little over two inches, and the lady who does the fish ordering says she's never seen any with a hooked beak like the actual male Celebese, but yet has seen them breed in the tank. Supposedly he's been eating flakes. I decided to take the little guy home and see how he does. She'll be ordering a few more soon, as well as the flag fish I was hoping to find. <Does sound like Dermogenys siamensis. I have a picture of a male and female on one of my web pages, here: http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/halfbeaks.html Scroll about halfway down.> Are there other species that look close to this picture that I should also consider? He's currently loving my thick stand of hornwort so I don't know if I'll be able to get a picture soon. <Yes, they do like floating plants!> What exactly does the andropodium look like? I can't find any pictures on Google and it sounds like it's not as well defined as the gonopodiums of my other livebearers. <Correct; essentially all you will see is that some of the rays in the anal fin are kinked. But don't expect to see anything like the gonopodium of a male livebearer. Regardless, they're quite easy to sex once you compare males and females in the same tank.> I'd like increase my single fish into a properly sexed trio if possible. Or would that require more space than my 29 gallon? Some articles say they're aggressive with each other. <Dermogenys are aggressive, but in your tank I'd get half a dozen and let them sort themselves out. They won't fight to the death if there are plenty of floating plants.> Also, my current feeding regiment includes Spirulina flakes, a color boosting tropical flake, peas, and frozen bloodworms (and livebearer fry, which everyone seems to relish!). Will this be a sufficient diet for the halfbeak, or should I look at adding something else? <Sounds perfect. Algae-based flake is probably essential, as halfbeaks are at least partially herbivorous in the wild. My specimens thoroughly enjoy Hikari Micro Pellets as well.> Also, I'm getting conflicting information on water changes. I currently do weekly 30% water changes. One of the articles recommended changing only 5% at a time. Are halfbeaks really that sensitive or will my current weekly schedule be suitable? I do check the parameters every day or two just in case. Both my tap water and my tank water are pH 7.5 so there wouldn't be a pH change. <Some halfbeaks are sensitive to water chemistry changes, particularly Nomorhamphus. But Dermogenys are generally quite tough, and some species occur across a wide range of water chemistry values. Dermogenys pusilla for example can be found in fresh, brackish and saltwater conditions. Provided you don't expose your fish to extreme, rapid water chemistry changes, they should be fine with the usual 30% water changes you do.> Thanks! Angela <Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Halfbeak, now with pictures 12/16/08 Hello crew! This is Angela, writing from my home email. I emailed you earlier this night from my work email at Pentair Water. My little Halfbeak friend has come out of hiding and allowed me to take a few pictures. Please excuse my poor skill with aquatic photography, I'm much better with furry animals. Side view, colors washed out a little: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a371/naturestee/100_6635a.jpg Top view: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a371/naturestee/100_6621a.jpg Am I right in thinking this is a Wrestling Halfbeak? <Certainly Dermogenys sp., most likely D. siamensis. To my eye at least, D. pusilla is more greenish rather than the brilliant white-silvery colour of D. siamensis. There's a nice picture of D. siamensis here: http://research.kahaku.go.jp/zoology/Fishes_of_Libong/data/p017_01b.html All Dermogenys are very similar in terms of care, and in my opinion they are the ideal "beginner's halfbeak". They breed readily, but the fry are quite small and easily eaten by other fish, so you're lucky if you find even one or two. Quite possibly worth moving pregnant females to their own quarters, or even a largish breeding net, depending on the size of the female. By contrast Nomorhamphus females are huge (10 cm/4 inches in some cases) and produce enormous fry that easily survive a few hours in well planted tanks, so you've got more chance of catching them and moving them. Once you've got the fry, rearing halfbeak fry is pretty easy.> He is shy of my other fish but is otherwise settling in well. He even ate a little and left his safe hornwort patch to fight his reflection. <Halfbeaks generally settle in well. I hand feed mine using Needlenose forceps, offering them a bloodworm at a time. In my opinion, this helps them get used to humans as "friends" rather than potential predators. Halfbeaks are notorious jumpers and can be skittish, as you'd imagine for a fish that lives so close to the surface. They do love floating plants!> Also, I forgot to mention it before but Neal's halfbeak website address, as posted in an FAQ, does not work: http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/halfbeakbreeding.html <Has been moved; the link was on the bottom of the page originally sent, otherwise simply go direct, here: http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/halfbeakbreeding.html Have stuck a redirect at that old address as well, so thanks for the warning.> Many thanks for any help with this little guy! Angela <Cheers, Neale.>

Halfbeak advice -- 03/18/08 Hello! <Ave!> About six weeks ago, I found two pairs of halfbeaks at a chain pet store. They were labeled 'Celebes Halfbeaks'. I was surprised to see them there, and asked a clerk to bag them up for me. The clerk made me promise to put them in a brackish tank. I was pretty sure that they were not brackish fish, since I recently finished reading Neale's new book, "Brackish-Water Fishes." (Great book!) <Thanks!> But, since they were in brackish water at the store, I put them into a quarantine tank with brackish water. <Ah, not ideal for most Nomorhamphus species. So far as I know, only Nomorhamphus erhardt lives in brackish water; all the others are soft/acid water beasties. That said, one store near me has a female Nomorhamphus liemi in its display brackish tank and has done so for a long time. So like a lot of "peripheral freshwater fish" (i.e., freshwater fish from marine families) they likely have significant salt tolerance.> They did fine, grew a little, and time passed and I never got around to acclimating them to fresh water. Last week, I wanted the quarantine tank, so I moved them into one of my brackish display tanks. I noticed at the time that one of the females was quite fat. Just now as I was feeding them, I noticed baby halfbeaks in the tank! They are quite large, about 1 cm or more long. I saw four or five of them, and they are very lively. <Indeed they are! And wonderfully easy to rear. The tricky bit is getting the mothers through pregnancy; once the babies are delivered, life gets a lot easier.> My question is, are these Nomorhamphus liemi? I looked through Baensch's Aquarium Atlas 1 through 3, and they look more like N. liemi than any of the other halfbeaks. <The give-away is the shape of the beak: Nomorhamphus liemi has a beak that curls, like a little beard, under the jaw.> My picture doesn't show it well, but the male's pelvic fins are yellow. I want to make sure before I do acclimate them to fresh water. If they are reproducing, they are not exactly unhappy where they are, and I want to keep them happy! <I'd leave them where they are for now. With halfbeaks, what seems to matter most of all is water chemistry stability, and if adding a little marine salt mix gives them that, I don't think they care all that much.> Thank you for your time, <You may care to peruse my "halfbeak breeding diary" at my web site, here: http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/halfbeakbreeding.html > Susan <Good luck! Neale.>

Re: Half-beaks I have seen half-beaks in my Local Pet shop (I use PetSmart and I have never been given bad advice.) I would like to purchase some but I would like to know more about their care and breeding. <Search at http://www.wetwebmedia.com using the Google search box and also search the web for these fish and you'll find a wealth of information.> Thanx, please respond AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! <You're welcome! Ronni>