SOME FUKTHER NOTES ON THE LIEE-HISTOriY 



OF CERATODUS (NEOCERATODUS) 



FORSTERI. 



By Thos. L. Bancroft; M.B. Edin. 



(With text-figure 9.) 



(Read before the Boyal Society of Queensland, 24//t June, 

 ■ 1918.) 



I have alread}^ recorded some observations on the 

 Burnett River Ceratodus,* particular! v the absence of 

 small forms ; fish about six pounds in weight were the 

 smallest seen up till May 18th, 1914, when one 20 inches in 

 length and weighing 2ibs. was caught in a mullet net, and 

 on April 11th, 1915, a smaller one still was taken by 

 dynamiting ; it was 16| inches in length and weighed Hlbs. 

 Mention was made in the Memoirs of the Queensland 

 Museumf of a still smaller specimen, 367mm. in length. 



In October, 1914, with the intention of rearing some 

 Ceratodus from the ova under more favourable condition? 

 than hitherto, a large hollow log was requisitioned to act 

 a,s an aquarium. It was 20 feet in length, 2 feet in 

 diameter and gave a depth of water 14 inches. It was 

 j)laced in position on the river bank thirty feet above the 

 normal water level, and a hand pump was fitted so that the 

 trough could be filled with river water, while sand, mud, 

 and water weeds were introduced to resemble closely a bit 

 of the river. About 80 young Ceratodus, from 2 to 6 weeks 

 old, which had been reared in glass jars, were introduced 

 into the trough and their growth recorded from time to time. 



*Proc. Roy. Soc. Q'land, xxxiii, 1911, p. 251-5; xxv, 1913, pp. 1-3 ; 

 xxvii (1), 1915, pp. 58-9. 



tQ"land Museum, Memoirs, i, 1912, p. 65. 



