TEOPICAL AQUARIUM FISHES 97 



The general rule with Haplochilus and Rivulus is to keep sexes 

 separated and then put the pairs together for three or four days in warm, 

 sunny aquaria with dense plant growth, such as Riccia, the small, light 

 green Utricularia, Anacharis, bushy Thread-Algae or Willow Moss 

 (Fontinalis). Then remove parent fish, keep separate again ten days 

 and repeat — each time using a separate aquarium and plants for receiv- 

 ing spawn. Eggs take about ten days to hatch at summer temperature 

 with Rivulus and Haplochilus and individual young fish must be fished 

 out with a teaspoon and kept in tlie same aquarium ivater at same temper- 

 ature at zi'hieh they hatch and fed first with Infusoria and later with small 

 Cyclops and Daphnia. 



B9 GROUP 



LIVE-BEARING TOOTH-CARPS. AH the fishes belonging to this 

 class are natives of America — the Southern States of the United States, 

 Central America and South America (Northern). They are generally 

 easy to keep and breed in the aquarium, require mostly uniform summer 

 temperature and clean water, and if well fed and kept in well-planted, spa- 

 cious aquaria, reward their keeper abundantly with frequent large families. 

 When the females are seen to be "heavy" with young (indicated by a 

 dark patch in the abdomen and great fulness of that part) and when they 

 act restlessly, seeking to avoid their mates and getting into the thickest 

 vegetation in the aquarium, then these females may be considered as 

 about to give birth to their young. They must then be placed preferably 

 in large straight-sided glass bell jars (8 inch), in about 3 inches of water, 

 with thick floating vegetation occupying at least 2/3 of the jar and that 

 placed toward the light in a sunny place and covered over with a piece of 

 glass or a plate. When the young are born, they instinctively seek shelter 

 from their cannibalistic parent and swim toward the light. If the vegeta- 

 tion is toward the light, most of the young ones will be safe from the 

 mother until discovered, when the mother fish can be returned to the 

 aquarium, most of the plants removed from the jar and the young fed on 

 powdered fishfood. The breeding jars shown on page 230 do away with 

 the necessity for plants or other shelter for the young. 



BIO GROUP 



MISCELLANEOUS FISHES. Some species do not come under 

 these classifications and are unknown in respect to their breeding habits. 



Ell GROUP 



MOUTHBREEDERS. The fish should be provided with a mod- 

 erate sized aquarium with about two inches of clean sand in the bottom. 

 The fish prepare a shallow nest in the sand, where the eggs are first 



