The Little Oddball

There isn't a person here who doesn't love oddball fish, and we're betting most of you are the same. We all adore Loaches and Knifefish, and everyone who's ever had a Pufferfish will tell you how cool they are to own. All these fish are great in their own way, but there's another oddball that should be on your radar, (or maybe it is already) and we're talking about Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus. This is a really unique fish, not seen all that often in aquariums, both of which will be a huge draw to some of you.

Halfbeaks are so called because they develop, well, half a beak. The lower jaw tends to grow substantially longer and more beak-like than the small triangular upper jaw. In the Malayan Halfbeak, this half a beak is especially pronounced; in a fully grown adult the beak can be nearly half the length of the fish's body! Proportionally, this makes it an absolutely massive beak, much larger than many other Halfbeaks! Conversely, these fish only get two and a half to three and a half inches long, so they aren't setting any total beak length records! While small, we think this Halfbeak is one of the most beautiful ones, with some pastel blue spots on their sides, and an iridescent edge to their tail fin.

Hemirhamphodon pogonathus are commonly called the Malayan Halfbeak; less frequently they are labeled as the Forest Halfbeak, and occasionally in Europe, the Ten Barred Halfbeak (or a close translation of this). Of these names, Forest Halfbeak makes a lot of sense as they are often found in the lowland streams and bogs of forested areas. Mayalan also makes sense as Mayala (part of Malaysia) is part of their native range, which includes Malaysia, Indonesia, and much of the southern Batang Peninsula.

The waters that make up the Malayan Halfbeak's wild home are slow flowing and warm. These fish would like to have a very gentle current along the top of the tank where they can point themselves upstream and hunt. Too much current will wash them away, and not enough will leave them susceptible to low oxygen levels. Since they also like warm water, this balance between oxygen and temperature should be a focus. The range of water temps runs from 76 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit, and we suggest sticking to the lower end of this range which will aid you in keeping the dissolved oxygen levels high. Their streams have very soft water, so shoot for less than five degrees of general hardness (GH). Keeping the pH low will also help match the profile of their native habitat, between five and six would be ideal though if done slowly, they will acclimate to both slightly less acidic water and to slightly harder water. They don't need stained water, but will be bolder, and acclimate faster in dimly lit displays, which lends itself to darker watercolor. These fish also do well in brackish conditions, up to a specific gravity of 1.003 or so; they do not require it, but are found regularly in these conditions, doing very well. Whatever your water chemistry profile looks like, be sure to acclimate the Hemirhamphodon pogonathus slowly, as they are sensitive to change. Once acclimated, they are quite hardy.

As we've briefly touched on, these are pretty small fish, and as such, really don't need that big of an aquarium. We do suggest keeping them in small groups. Aquarists should always keep at least a pair, and five to seven would help them be more comfortable and acclimate more quickly. As such, a 40-gallon breeder tank would be a good size for a small group, with a 55 gallon or bigger being even better. They don't care one iota about the depth of tank and will rarely leave the top few inches of whatever display you put them in, so your focus should be on footprint and not depth. They can be skittish, especially initially, and larger numbers of them will help ease this as do dimmer conditions. This skittishness, and their tendency to live very near the surface both play a part in them being excellent jumpers and a high risk to do so, so a covered tank is a necessity.

These fish will do very well in planted tanks, never bothering your plants at all. However, as they do prefer dimmer conditions, some surface plants like duckweed or hornwort would help shelter them from the brighter lights you might need. Make sure they have plenty of open space near the top to swim.

Once these fish are acclimated, they are easy to feed. They will greedily accept both frozen and live foods like Daphnia, Brine, small Bloodworms, Tubifex, even small insects and insect larvae (which are both natural foods for them). They take easily to flake foods and floating pellets; foods that sink quickly will often get under them and will go unseen and ignored by many Malayan Halfbeaks. As they are somewhat single minded in their upstream hunting positioning, it is important to feed them small amounts at a time, so they have a good chance to get enough food before it gets past them.

Malayan Halfbeaks are very peaceful fish, and will pretty much mind their own business, as such, any tankmates you choose for them should also be peaceful, and ideally, like a different depth than the surface loving Malayans. If you decide to keep them with other fish, they do well with small peaceful Tetras and Rasboras for the middle depths, and fish like Otos and Corydoras make excellent choices for the bottom of the tank. Many hobbyists even keep these with some ornamental shrimp, and we've found this to be low risk as the shrimp inhabit the parts of the tank that Halfbeaks just don't explore and are generally too big to get eaten by this little fish, though any baby shrimp that get into the current will certainly be snacks. One of the reasons we suggest keeping at least two (hopefully a pair) is that Malayan Halfbeaks are livebearers and there is an opportunity for them to reproduce in the home aquarium.

If your pair decides to breed, the male will harass the female(s) until she accepts him. She will give live birth after about two months, but this may go faster in warmer water. When born, the fry will already be large enough to take foods like powdered flake, and brine shrimp nauplii. This being said, they don't develop the signature lower jaw until they mature. Each birth produces very few fry, on the order of 10 to 20. Some hobbyists report having a very high mortality rate with the fry at birth, which is often attributed to dietary deficiency. If this becomes an issue for you, look into varying their foods more, with a focus on nutrition. We feed Gamma and Nutramar foods here and have great results. Lastly, it's been our experience that Malayan Halfbeaks are rubbish parents and are very likely to consume the fry if not removed to a rearing tank.

If you love yourself an oddball fish, and are looking for one that is peaceful, small and gorgeous, you may have been frustrated. The Malayan Halfbeak is here to save your day (and display!) If slowly acclimated and given an appropriate environment, these are hardy fish that will entertain you with activity and surprise you with their beauty all while offering a very interesting challenge to people who want to raise some different livebearers. Head to your Local Fish Store and ask them to get you some Hemirhamphodon pogonathus from Aquatropic today!