102 



THE AQUAKIUM, APRIL, 1894. 



patches deposits in different stages of 

 development, some ready to hatch, while 

 others may have been deposited only an 

 hour before. The male remains below 

 the leaf until the eggs are all hatched, 

 allowing nothing to approach them. He 

 does that with so much energy that 

 even goldfish fifty times his own size 

 he will attack and drive away, and 

 should a dragon-fly alight on his leaf 

 he will jump out of the water and 

 scare it off. 



As the minnow is very destructive to 

 fish spawn himself, he seems to judge 

 others by his own character, and with 

 good reason, as such deposits deprived 

 of his protection are invariably soon 

 devoured by other fishes. 



The black-headed minnow begins to 

 spawn at the age of one year, beginning 

 early in the spring and continuing 

 throughout the summer. Their eggs 

 hatch after four to six days, according 

 to the temperature. The young min- 

 nows swim in shoals near the surface. 



Although minnows are not a worth- 

 less fish in one sense of the word, as 

 they constitute the almost exclusive 

 food of many of our table fish, they are 

 a nuisance to the fishculturist, and may 

 be ranked among fishes as the English 

 sparrow is among the birds. Its 

 destructiveness knows no limits; it 

 devours spawn and young of other fish, 

 and continually worries other more use- 

 ful and peaceful varieties. The species 

 above described frequent water of any 

 quality, and it is often wondered how 

 minnows ever came into certain water 

 basins which had no connection what- 

 ever with creeks or springs. This, how- 

 ever, may be explained by considering 

 the adhesive nature of their eggs and 

 the fact that frogs and toads frequent 

 the same waters and deposit their 

 spawn upon similar objects and at the 



same time as the minnow. What would 

 be more natural than to suspect that these 

 amphibians transplant the eggs from 

 one locality to another on the moist 

 skin of their backs ? 



The practical aspect of this discov- 

 ery the pisciculturist will readily appre- 

 ciate, for he can exclude the destruc 

 tive minnow by excluding the frog and 

 toad, or rid his pond when already 

 present by destroying their spawn or 

 capturing the male from under the leaf. 



THE STONE-ROLLER. 



[Campostoma anotnalum.) 



This fish attains a size of from four 

 to six inches ; the body is stout and 

 long and covered with very small scales. 

 The color above is brownish with a 

 brassy lustre, a black vertical bar is 

 situated behind the opercle ; the eyes 

 are orange and red ; the dorsal and 

 anal fins have each a dusky cross-bar 

 about half way up ; the rest of the fins 

 are olivaceous. 



In the spring the fins of the male 

 turn to a brilliant orange and many 

 rounded tubercles appear on the head 

 and whole of the upper surface. ' It is 

 also native throughout the Mississippi 

 Valley, frequenting clear running water 

 rather than ponds. 



THE BLACK-NOSED OK BANDED 

 DACE. 



{EhinicJithys atronasus.) 



The body of the black-nose is cylin- 

 drical and covered with very small 

 scales. The head is pointed, the up- 

 per jaw longer than the lower, and aj?- 

 pears like a nose. (See illustration.) 



The color is dusky above, paper 

 white below, and dotted with spots 

 of intense black, a lateral band 

 running along the sides from the 



