THE CARPS 99 



is the goldfish. It is quite possible for anyone who has 

 a pond in his garden to get this fish to breed, and 

 to watch for himself its early life history. In May 

 and June search the leaves and stems of the plants in 

 the pond for small, round greenish-yellow semi-trans- 

 parent eggs, about the size of rape seed, gather the 

 leaves to which these are attached, and place them in 

 a floating cage in which you will be able to watch the 

 young fish hatch and grow. The simplest way to make 

 a floating cage is to take a large biscuit tin, cut openings 

 in each of the four sides, leaving the bottom intact, and 

 solder over these openings fine wire gauze, twenty strands 

 to the inch. Then float this cage supported in a wooden 

 frame, so that there is a couple of inches of it above the 

 surface of the water. In this manner the young fish 

 get their natural food as it comes through the fine gauze, 

 and at the same time they are protected from their 

 enemies. I have been able to rear several of the carps 

 in this manner, and in one case only did this apparatus 

 fail. In a floating cage were several young bream, and 

 when these were examined after an interval of some 

 time nearly all the young fish were killed, and the cage 

 was swarming with water-boatmen. These had evidently 

 got in through the gauze netting while they were quite 

 small, or had been carried in as eggs, and had rapidly 

 grown upon the sumptuous fare they found inside the 

 cage. 



At six weeks old the primitive fin round the body 

 of the goldfish disappears, and the various fins become 



