The Puffer Forum

LFS has some pearly white halfbeaks - I was wondering if they were Dermogenys siamensis, as that's the closest I can find and maybe all females too. My Q is does anyone keep them? I'd put this in the brackish tanks forum as I thought these were brackish fish but have read one article where they are said to be tolerant of a wide range of water conditions if acclimatised slowly.

LFS has them in fw. As usual!

never kept any personally but one of the lfs around here has halfbeaks alot. from what i've read just be careful not to spook them. i guess they have a tendency to swim at full speed into the side of the tank and hurt themselves when startled.

I thought they were BW?

http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/FAQ/6f.html

We had one but it jumped while we were on holiday - it was probably looking for food. We kept it at SG1.003 and they're not nearly as fragile as they look, ours bullied anything that approached the surface, including the figure 8's. Maybe if you kept a group then they'd concentrate on their own kind but because they are (fairly) aggressive and stay at the surface then they would be best in a large, long tank.

This was the best page I'd found concerning halfbeaks - guess who wrote it!

http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/halfbeaks.html

I'll have a careful look at them next time I'm in the shop, if they are brackish or best in brackish then so be it...

Thanks for your help so far