GOLDFISH AND THEIR CULTURE IN JAPAN. 387 
quantity, without their being overfed. The males of the parent fish are sepa- 
rated from the spawners some time before the latter deposit their eggs. When 
the spawning season approaches, the water of the pond is not renewed, but 
the fish are kept amply fed with the larve of mosquitoes (Culex pipiens) or 
earthworms (Limnodrilus or Tubijex) for about ten days, at the end of which 
time the eggs are laid when the temperature of water in the pond rises or when 
it rains. As, by experience, this can be known beforehand, the water of the 
spawning pond is changed the day before and the parent fish are removed 
thither. The spawning bed is then made with “kingyomo” (Myriophyllum 
verticellatum), on which the eggs are deposited on the following morning. 
When the number of parent fish is 5, the proper size of the pond is 4 
by 3 shaku (1.2 meters by 91.0 centimeters) with a depth of 5 sun (15 
centimeters). With 50 parent fish, the area of the pond should be 7 by 6 
shaku (2.1 by 1.80 meters), the depth remaining the same as before. In a 
pond of the latter size, a circular concavity with a diameter of 8 sun (24 
centimeters) to 1 shaku (30 centimeters) and with a depth of 1 sun 5 bu 
(4.5 centimeters) from the bottom of the pond, is made around the outlet for 
the water. This concavity is intended to prevent the fish from being driven, 
when the water is drained off, against the walls of the pond. When the spawn- 
ing is over, either the parent fish or the eggs are removed to another pond to 
prevent the eggs from being devoured. 
For a few days after the eggs are hatched, the fry do not move about, but 
stick to: their bed or the bottom of the pond. During this time no food need 
be given, as every individual of the fry is provided with a yolk sac in its abdo- 
men; if forcibly fed, their health would be impaired. In three days or so, they 
begin to swim about in the pond, and are then fed once every day in the morn- 
ing with the yolk of hen’s eggs boiled. This food is administered by straining 
the yolk, mixed with water in the proportion of 2 eggs to 5 sho (9.1 cubic 
centimeters) of water, through cotton or silk gauze, this mixture being then 
completely stirred up until it is yellow, when it is put into a watering pot and 
poured all over the pond as food. The belly of the fry becomes yellow by taking 
this food, and the shade of the abdominal yellowish color shows whether or 
not the fry have got sufficient food. After being thus fed for seven davs, they 
are given the small crustacea, ‘‘mijinko” (Daphnia, Moina or Cyclops), which 
have been cultivated and kept in a separate pond, the crustacea being caught 
with a gauze bag and then sifted, in order that any injurious insect, etc., may 
not remain mixed in them. After fifteen days thus nourished with mijinko, the 
tender fish are fed with the larvee of mosquitoes or earthworms cut in small pieces. 
About twenty days after the fish are hatched, the first selection is made, 
for which purpose the fish are put into a white earthenware plate. As they are 
