m ,tsukuri] GOLD-FISHES IN IAPAN 19 



breeding. This takes place any time between the last part of March 

 and the middle of June, the usual time being in April and May. At 

 this season the color of the fish becomes more brilliant 'than ever, 

 and small, low warts that can barely be felt with one's finger are said 

 to be produced on the opercula of the male. Both sexes crowd 

 together, causing great commotion in ponds in which they are kept. 

 Plenty of a waterweed ("kingyomo," or"matsumo," Ceratophyl- 

 lum demersum Linnaeus), or bundles of fine roots of the willow tree 

 are placed in the pond, and on them the gold-fish lay their eggs. It 

 is an interesting fact that gold-fish breeders are able to control, within 

 a certain limit, the time of deposition of eggs. If the fish are given 

 plenty of food beforehand and then the water of the pond in which 

 they are kept is renewed, or if they are placed in another pond, they 

 will deposit eggs in a day or two. On the contrary, if they are 

 underfed and kept in the same stagnant water, they will desist from 

 depositing eggs sometimes altogether. 



The eggs take eight to nine days to hatch. The young for the first 

 few days are given the yolk of hen's eggs, boiled. Food is usually 

 given them on shallow earthen-ware plates, slung by three strings from 

 a bamboo pole, for the youngest these plates being kept at the depth 

 of a little over one inch below the surface of the water. For the next 

 two or three weeks the young are given various kinds of fresh-water 

 Copepoda. These the gold-fish greeders prepare beforehand in a 

 separate pond, for they have the knack of producing these water fleas 

 in any quantity they need at any time they like. After Copepoda, 

 succeeds the ordinary food of the gold-fish, such as fresh water, earth- 

 worms, boiled cracked wheat, etc. It is essential for the growth and 

 health of the fish that they be kept as warm as possible ; hence, the 

 shallow earthenware dishes from which they are fed are kept at first — 

 that is, when the fish are first hatched, and therefore, in the hot 

 season — only a little over an inch below the surface of the water. With 

 the growth of the young and the approach of the colder weather they 

 are gradually put down lower and lower, until in the winter they are 

 down nearly ten inches, such a depth being naturally warmer than 

 nearer the very surface of the water. 



Among the young fish all sorts and conditions of the body and the 

 fins are found — that is, all forms intermediate between those closely 

 resembling the normal crucian carp with a long slender body, the 

 unsplit tail and anal fins etc., and those which are extremely modi- 

 fied, as shown in the varietal types described above. If a lot of 



