NO. 5 (1920) CICHLID FISHES OF MALABAR 165 



freshes, large numbers of them are found to migrate to the 

 inundated paddy-fields and irrigation channels. Most of them 

 then put on an attractive yellow livery. They breed freely in all 

 waters they choose to occupy. The breeding seasons almost 

 correspond with and the breeding habits are just the same as those 

 of E. suratensis. It becomes sexually mature at the close of the 

 first year of its growth. It is more active and pugnacious during 

 the breeding season than E. suratensis. The female is smaller 

 and more deeply coloured than the male. Mr. Sundara Raj (5) 

 has described in detail the breeding habits, the nest, the eggs and 

 the larvae of this fish and I have therefore to note here only certain 

 facts amplifying his statements. 



The eggs are always attached to submerged objects, prefer- 

 ably small stones, old leaves or stumps and dead roots of coconut 

 trees. If the object is not raised a little from the ground, a small 

 excavation is also made adjacent to it. The eggs hatch on the third 

 or fourth day and the larvae attach themselves to the egg mem. 

 brane for a short time. They are picked up from there and deposited 

 in pits prepared for the purpose. These excavations are about an 

 inch or two in diameter and an inch or a little less deep at the 

 centre. None that I have seen has been lined with algae. New 

 pits are prepared from time to time and the larvae transferred 

 thereto in turn. Mr. Sundara Raj describes a curious habit of the 

 parent of what appeared to him to be a feeding of the fry. I have 

 also observed the parent going to some selected spot, preferably 

 near the root of a plant or the side of a submerged stone or stick 

 and digging with its mouth. This is, however, only for the prepa- 

 ration of a new pit. The sediment collected is never thrown into 

 the nest which is always kept clean. On the third day after 

 hatching the mouth is formed, and on the fifth or sixth day the 

 larvae leave the pit and move about in the neighbourhood in quest 

 of food. The yolk sac is then almost absorbed and the cement 

 organs disappear. Except for the difference in size it is very 

 difficult to distinguish the young of E. maculatus from those of 

 E. suratensis before the transverse colour bands disappear in the 

 former. 



References. 



I. Annandale, N. — "Report on the Biology of the Lake of 

 Tiberias, " Journal As. Soc. Bengal (N.S.), Vol. XI, Nos. 10 and II, 

 1915, PP- 464-65- 



