The wrestling halfbeak, Dermogenys pusilla, also known as Malayan halfbeak is a member of the halfbeak

Halfbeak

The halfbeaks are a geographically widespread and numerically abundant family of epipelagic fish inhabiting warm waters around the world. The family Hemiramphidae is divided into two subfamilies, the primarily marine Hemiramphinae and the freshwater or estuarine Zenarchopterinae...

 family (Hemiramphidae) found in the fresh and brackish waters of rivers and coastal regions in South-East Asia, in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Malaysia, Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 and Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

. It is a small, slender, livebearing fish, with the elongated lower jaw characteristic of its family. The colour of this species varies, depending on where the specimen is found.

Wrestling halfbeaks are surface-feeding fish and feed on a variety of small invertebrates including crustaceans and insect larvae, but especially mosquito larvae and flying insects that have fallen onto the surface of the water. As with all halfbeaks, the upper jaw lifts upwards when the fish is opening its mouth. Wrestling halfbeaks are livebearing fish

Live-bearing aquarium fish

Live-bearing aquarium fish, often simply called livebearers, are fish that retain the eggs inside the body and give birth to live, free-swimming young.-Common aquarium livebearers:...

, the females giving birth to around twenty offspring after a gestation period of about a month.

Wrestling halfbeaks are sexually dimorphic. The females are larger than the males and grow up to 7 cm (2.8 inches) long; males only reach about 5.5 cm (2.2 inches) and typically has red or yellow patches on the dorsal fin and the beak. The males of wrestling halfbeaks will fight among themselves by locking jaws, hence their name, for up to thirty minutes.

Fish fighting

In the wild, and in large aquaria, the weaker male will quickly disengage and swim away, and fights therefore rarely result in serious injury to either party. However, in their native range, local people sometimes use wrestling halfbeaks as fighting fish for betting purposes (like fighting cocks

Gamecock

A gamecock or game fowl is a type of rooster with physical and behavioral traits suitable for cockfighting. Game fowl are more closely related to their wild cousins "jungle fowl"; a shy wild chicken from forests in South Central and Southeastern Asia...

 or siamese fighting fish

Siamese fighting fish

The Siamese fighting fish , also known as the betta , is a popular species of freshwater aquarium fish. The name of the genus is derived from ikan bettah, taken from a local dialect of Malay...

).

Wrestling halfbeaks in aquaria

Wrestling halfbeaks, as well as other species in the genus Dermogenys, are quite widely traded as aquarium fish, sometimes under the "silver halfbeak" or "golden halfbeak" names, depending on the colouration of the fish. As with all freshwater halfbeaks, these fish are sensitive to sudden changes in pH and hardness, but they are otherwise adaptable, and can be maintained in anything from soft and acid freshwater through to slightly brackish water. When first introduced into the aquarium, wrestling halfbeaks are nervous fish that tend to be timid. They may swim frantically if suddenly frightened, even crashing into the walls. However, once they are used to their surroundings, they become lively, easy to care for fish.