THE AQUARIUM BULLETIN 



63 



aquarium fishes; its silvery and bluish 

 colored body and its ])artly pink and 

 blood red colored tins make it 

 exceedingly beautiful. They will 

 breed in Aquaria but water must be 

 changed often. Their habitat : Ar- 

 gentina. 



Of the Live Bearing tishes we have 

 many friends. For example : The 

 Xiphophorus Helleri, habitat Mexico, 

 also known under the name of 

 Mexican Sword Tail or .Sabre Tail, 

 one of the best in shape and color. 

 The riatipoecilia of the varieties of 

 Rubra, Pulchra and the Maculata : 

 habitat Central and .South America. 

 The Guppyis, lately renamed Libistis 

 Reticulata also sometimes called the 

 Million Fish, or the Peacock of the 

 lish family, as no two hsh are colored 

 and spotted alike. The male hsh is 

 beautifully colored and marked, and 

 the female fish is very plain and much 

 larger. They are very prolific and 

 e.xist in their native waters in great 

 abundance, — hence the name Million 

 Fish. They are great destroyers of 

 the larvea of mosquitos. They are 

 found in Trinidad and Venezuela and 

 neighboring islands. The Girardinus 

 Reticulata, also sometimes called the 

 um fishes, the male and female both 

 black si)otted on a light yellow back- 

 ground. They breed well, are hardy, 

 easy to raise and not at all canibalistic. 

 The young fishes of the Girardinus 

 family, when born, have a little black 

 s])ot on each side of the body and as 

 they grow up other black spots aopear 

 on both body and fins. The habitat 

 of these fishes in Central and .South 

 America. 



Not everybody could kee]i all these 

 fishes mentioned and have the tune 

 to take proper care of them. I have 



only called your attention to some 

 of the great family of fancy fishes ; 

 to give a full description of all those 

 known up to-date would take a great 

 deal of time. 



Literature on this line must be con- 

 sulted for extensive information; for 

 instance, the recently commenced 

 publications by Dr. E. Bade largely 

 illustrated with photographs taken of 

 live fishes in the aquaria, also that 

 of \V. L. Brind with full description 

 and pen and ink drawings of fancv 

 fishes. 



I have called your attention only 

 to the more common varieties of fishes, 

 I will now also mention a few of the 

 rarer species; for instance, Ptero- 

 phyllum Scalare, Gasteropalecus 

 Stellatus, Ambassis Lala, Myletis, 

 Scatophagus, Polycentrus Schom- 

 burghi, Fundulus Gularis blue and 

 yellow, I'antodon Bucholzi or Butter- 

 fly Fish, and the beautiful Rasbora 

 Heteramorpha and Maculata. All the 

 last mentioned are very rare and fine 

 looking aquarium fishes but as a rule 

 not hardy, very costly and difiicult 

 to breed. 



I'lxperience teaches us to provide 

 a tank for each kind of fish, which 

 is preferable for the following rea- 

 sons. Most young fishes look alike; 

 if the i>arent fishes have their own 

 tank we know when we see the young 

 born or raised from spawn, where 

 they originated from in case of sick- 

 ness, which is often brought about 

 by newly acquired specimens or by 

 parasites being mixed in with the live 

 food, taken from ponds which, of 

 course, will only spread throughout 

 the one particular tank. 



(Continued in December issue.) 



