‹ Fish Finder· #185
Spotted Halfbeak
Hemiramphus far
Bislamalongmaot— names this kind of animal, not this species alone
- Habitat
- Open water
- Max size
- 45 cm
- Depth
- 0-6 m
- Family
- Hemiramphidae
Hemiramphus far, the halfbeak, black-barred halfbeak, black-barred garfish, barred halfbeak, barred garfish or spotted halfbeak, is a schooling marine fish belonging to the family Hemiramphidae, the halfbeaks. It has an Indo-Pacific distribution and has invaded the eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.
Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Side by side, with what tells them apart.
Both are long, silvery surface fish with a beak. Houndfish has both jaws drawn out into a long beak full of sharp teeth, a dark blue-green back and a black keel on each side of the tail base, and it reaches 1.5 m. Spotted Halfbeak has only the lower jaw extended, tipped in red, below a short triangular upper jaw, carries four to six dark bars on its sides, and stays under 45 cm.
See the Houndfish →
Two halfbeaks that school at the surface of lagoons, both with a long lower jaw tipped in red. Spotted Halfbeak has three to nine, usually four to six, dark bars on its silvery sides and a bluish back. Dussumier's Halfbeak has no bars: it is greenish above and plain silvery white below.
See the Dussumier's Halfbeak →