34 THE FRESH-WATER AQUARIUM. 
the best of all fishes for aquarian purposes. It will survive 
the wreck of a whole establishment, even if the water gets 
putrid and almost exhausted of oxygen. The easy, 
graceful motions, the beauty of the colouring, and the 
docility, of this fish, must make it a favourite and a pet 
wherever it is kept. Ihave always had a large number 
of them, some of considerable size; they group themselves 
like friends on good terms of acquaintance, take an 
interest in whatever goes on in the room where the tank 
stands, and elegantly poised in mid-water, will watch their 
proprietor for hours. Small, red earth-worms, young 
water snails, and home-made bread, are the best of foods 
for them. They will seldom eat bread at first, but soon 
get to like it, eat it greedily, “‘ and ask for more.” The 
Prussian carp may be taught to feed from the hand, even 
more boldly than the minnow, and readily assemble them- 
selves for inspection when the side of the glass is gently 
tapped with the finger-nail. None of the carp family are 
carnivorous in any great degree. Mr. Yarrell says the 
Prussian carp will recover after having been thirty hours 
removed from water. 
C’. carassius.—The crucian, or German carp, is easily 
distinguished from its compeers by its bream-shaped back, 
which rises from the nape into a high arch along the line 
of the dorsal fin. It is to be found in the Thames, 
between Hammersmith and Windsor, whether for the 
angler to kill or the aquarian to preserve. It is less 
hardy than the Prussian carp, and a little subject to fun- 
goid growths. 
C’. auratus of Linnzeus, the lovely gold carp, will hold 
pre-eminence among domestic fishes for its splendour of 
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