524 PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. 



little, and now there was no doubt left in my mind that I had before 

 me a highly i^regnant female and a male preparing a " cradle '' — 

 consequenth' a pair. It may be imagined with -what expectancy I 

 looked forward to what was going to happen. In the last days of 

 July the ovipositor of the female developed, and on the morning of 

 August 1 I found eggs deposited on the side of the aquarium next 

 to the window, which I estimated to number from two to three hun- 

 dred. Because of the troubling of the water through the digging of 

 the male I could only indistinctly discern the parents, which con- 

 stantly swam up and down in front of the eggs. After five or six 

 days I discovered that the eggs had disappeared from the glass, and 

 on turning aside the plants covering the place Avhere the male had 

 dug the hole I could discern the constantly moving young. One of 

 the parents was continually hovering over the hole and appeared 

 to keep watch while the other was feeding. After eight more days I 

 noticed one morning that the hole was empty, and on looking about 

 I saw the whole swarm of young ones accompanied by the parents 

 in a corner of the aquarium searching the bottom and the plants. 

 And from that time on the young were daily swimming about accom- 

 panied by the parents, and generally so that the female was in the 

 midst of the young, while the male would always swim around the 

 swarm, on the lookout that none of the little ones should get lost. 

 Sometimes it happened that one of the young stayed behind a little, 

 then the closely watching parent took the little one into its mouth 

 and spit it out again in the midst of the swarm, Avhereupon the young 

 one turned a few^ somersaults and then swam merrily away. To be 

 sure, I also saw at different times that the male did not handle the 

 young very gently ; indeed, at times it would seize them so roughly 

 and spit them out again with such violence, that tliey could not stop 

 their somersaults and slowly sank to the bottom, where they lay twist- 

 ing and quite slowly recovered. In three or four cases the young- 

 perished through the rough treatment of the father. Every evening 

 the yqung were taken to the hole where they remained during the 

 night. 



This })retty exhibition of family life lasted about four we<^ks and 

 the young had already grown somewhat. Then came, in September, 

 some very cool days and yet cooler nights, and the number of the 

 young decreased every day, while the behavior of the ]:)arent fishes 

 to one another became as before, so that I was finally obliged to pro- 

 tect the female from the bites and hits of the male by removing it 

 from the basin. The weather became yet colder and Avith it the 

 number of the young steadily decreased. I had not at my disposal 

 an aquarium capable of being heated and so had to see how the young, 

 one after another, disappeared. The male seemed hardly to care 



I 



