MALAYAN FISHES. iG 
Fishes known to produce demersal eggs on our coasts are the 
Gar-Pike (Todak) and the Flying-fish (Bélalang) and their eggs 
have viscid threads by which they become attached or entangled 
with foreign objects or eggs of the same species. The eggs of the 
Todak may be seen entangled in fishing stakes (kelong) in masses,. 
which look rather like cobwebs. 
When the breeding season arrives fishes migrate to the loca- 
lities most suitable for the deposition of their eggs. At this time 
our principal food fish which produce pelagic eggs proceed far out 
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to sea against the prevailing monsoonal current. This is known as 
the contranatant spawning migration. After spawning, the eggs 
are brought back by the current towards the coast. This is the 
denatant drift. 
Though the eggs of many species of fish hatch out fry which 
are miniature representations of the adult fish, the eggs of others 
hatch out darval forms, known as Leptocephali, which bear no re- 
semblance to their patents. These Leptocephali are transparent, 
attenuated creatures, often ribbon-like in shape, with very small 
heads. They appear to be incapable of much effort and to be 
specially adapted for passive drift; in fact, the Leptocephalus 
stage appear to be a marvellous provision of Nature to enable 
the young of certain fish which spawn far out at sea to reach 
the shallows near the coasts in a state of suspended animation. 
We know that the Tarpin (Jegalops cyprinoides) Malay Bulan- 
bulan and the Giant Herring (Flops hawatiensis) Malay Ban- 
dang, pass through a Leptocephalus stage, and as no Malay 
fisherman whom I have questioned, has ever seen the Parang- 
parang (Chirocentrus dorab) until it was a few inches long, 
it may be because this fish passes through a larval metamor- 
phosis also. It is only within recent years, that certain Lepto- 
cephali, long known to naturalists, have been identified as larval 
Eels." 
For example, Leptocephalus brevirostris is now known to be 
the larva of the common Eel of Europe (Anguilla vulgaris) and 
Leptocephalus morrisvi has been watched through its metamorphosis 
into the Conger Kel (Conger vulgaris). 
If the contranatant spawning migration is against the S. W. 
monsoonal current, the ova and larvae will drift in a N. E. direction 
and those that enter the Straits of Malacca, for instance, would 
gradually approach the West coast of the Peninsula. Similarly, 
a spawning migration in the South China Sea during the N. E. 
monsoon would result in the larvae being carried along and dis- 
persed along the East coast of the Peninsula, 
As the larvae approach the coast they come within the influence 
of the tides and while continuing their progress with the monsoon 
current they are carried backwards and forwards by the daily ebb 
and flow of the tides. 
1 Meek, Migrations of Fish. 
