Wrestling Halfbeak

The wrestling halfbeak is a small South-East Asian fish that gives birth to live young, and takes its name from the way males fight by locking jaws and wrestling for up to thirty minutes.

It lives in schools at the surface of sluggish and still fresh or brackish water, in canals, drains, estuaries, flooded fields, lakes, ponds and rivers, and only rarely in the sea. Its range takes in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra.

Appearance

This slender fish has the long lower jaw typical of halfbeaks, and its colour depends on where it comes from. Females are the bigger sex at up to 7cm, while males reach about 5.5cm and usually show patches of red or yellow on the dorsal fin and beak.

Behaviour

Jaw-locking contests are settled quickly in the wild, as the weaker fish soon breaks away and swims off, so serious injury is rare. Even so, people in parts of its native range stage these contests and bet on the winner, much as others do with fighting cocks.

Feeding

Staying near the top of the water, it feeds on small invertebrates such as crustaceans and insect larvae, with a particular liking for mosquito larvae and flying insects that land on the surface.

Life cycle

This is a livebearing fish. Females carry their young for about a month and then produce around twenty offspring.

Relationship with people

It is quite widely traded as an aquarium fish, sometimes sold as the silver or golden halfbeak depending on its colour. New arrivals are timid and can panic and crash into the walls of the tank, but once settled they turn into lively fish.