or lesser extent according to the number of 

 eggs she develops at the time, and the miJe 

 becomes of a brighter hue and chases the 

 female for several da:ys, traveling at express 

 train speed until the day arrives when the 

 female is ripe. Then he goes down to the bot- 

 tom and fans a place clear of all debris, 

 making it look as if it had been almost pol- 

 ished. At the same time he spreads his fins 

 and looks beautiful. The female then places 

 herself at his side and they swim around over 

 the cleared place, at the same time laying some 

 eggs on the bottom. 



The male then swims over them and the 

 female follows him ard picks up the eggs in 

 her mouth as fast as they are fertilized by the 

 male. Then the process is repeated until all 

 the eggs are disposed of. After this, for sev- 

 eral days, the male does not worry the female 

 much, even when they are together in a small 

 aquarium (as I have tried them both ways). 

 But after a week he again begins to drive her 

 r.nd tries to make her drop the >oung, but 

 her mother love is so strong she holds them 

 ro matter what happens. I caught one after 

 it had carried the eggs about ten days, and the 

 joung came out in my hand (about twenty of 

 them) with large egg sacs on them. I put 

 them back in the water and she picked them 

 all up again, and every one developed to per- 

 fect fish. The number of the \ oung varies 

 from ten to seventy-five or perhaps more. The 

 largest number I have had was sixty-five. 



After about twenty to twenty-three days the 

 young emerge from the mouth of the mother 

 ard swim around for a while, and most breed- 

 ers immediately on seeing them take the 

 female away from them, as I did myself until 

 recently. On March 1st, 1914, I had two fish 

 in the large aquarium carrying young. 

 Being of the opinion they were about to part 

 with them, I caught them and placed them in 

 51 



