PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. 



525 



about iht'iii any longer, and at last 1 counted only .-even of them. 

 Those I took out of the basin and i)laced in a little breedini>- tank. 

 They held their own in it for a few days more, but linally one morn- 

 ing the last one was dead. 



Later I had prepared a small aquarium capable of being heated 

 and in which I intended to have the parent fishes winter, but only a 

 few days later I was obliged to isolate the female, as the male had 

 been too hard on her. This time the female did not recover from 

 the bites and wounds received, and after two days I found it floating 

 dead on the surface of the water. The male, hoAvever, was very well 

 during the entire winter. I had provided the aquarium which it 

 occupied with only a sand l);)(tom, into which I had put a few |)lants 



Fig. 9G. — Gcoiiha<jus hrachyurus. 



(Eloded dcns(t). In this sand the fish dug one hole after another 

 during the whole winter, whereby the plants Avere of course continu- 

 ally pulled out. In the beginning I always jnit the plants back into 

 the ground when I saw that thej^ had been dug up. But I became at 

 last tired of continually replacing the plants and left them as the 

 fish wanted to have them. Gradually it got them all dug up, except- 

 ing one behind which it had its place of hiding and of rest. When 

 it saw anything moving in or near the aquarium, it took refuge 

 behind this plant. In February I was obliged to give away this fine 

 fellow for Avant of room. It stayed Avith its ncAV possessor a fcAV daA's 

 in a tank without any bottom soil whatsoeA^er, and Avhether it there 

 missed the digging as a condition of living or Avhether it became 

 diseased I can not tell. The short and the long of it is that it soon 



