The Zenarchopteridae exhibit strong sexual dimorphism, practicing internal fertilisation, and in some cases ovoviviparous or viviparous (the family also includes oviparous species).

[2][3] The members in the family are mainly found in fresh and brackish water of tropical Asia and New Guinea, but the genus Zenarchopterus also includes marine species from the Indo-Pacific.

[7] These non-schoolers prefer to lurk among aquatic plants such as reeds, dead trees, and artificial structures of various types; from where they wait for small prey animals to drift by or alight on the surface, before darting from their hiding place to hunt.

[2] The fresh and brackish water halfbeaks of the genera Dermogenys, Hemirhamphodon, and Nomorhamphus are all livebearers (with the exception of the oviparous H. tengah[3]), that is, they produce well-developed free-swimming young.

Males of the ovoviviparous and viviparous species all have a modified anal fin, the andropodium, similar to the gonopodium of poecilid livebearers, used to deliver sperm to the females.

[8] Although most egg laying species mate by shedding the milt externally, as is typical for bony fish, at least some practice internal fertilization: male Zenarchopterus use a modified anal fin to direct sperm into the genital opening of the female prior to spawning.

They will eat insect larvae such as bloodworms readily, as well as crustacean eggs, shrimp, fruit flies, and small pieces of chopped white fish.

Once the fry have been born, the large babies eat newly hatched brine shrimp, small live foods such as daphnia, and powdered flake.