4 THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1892. 
GLIMPSES BENEATH THE 
WATER. 
This past summer the Paradise fish 
reigned, and this intelligent little beauty, 
which so quickly becomes the pet of all 
who have the opportunity to watch it, 
should wear the crown. But of course 
where there is much light, there is 
shade too, and so has the Paradise fish 
faults as well as other fishes have theirs. 
‘I refer to the haughty temper of some 
of the males, in fact of all the males, 
for they all treat their mates sooner or 
later ‘‘ really-cruel.” What can be the 
cause of this? Ihave one pair which 
had twelve different broods this sum- 
mer. Their home is a good sized 
aquarium, so arranged that it can be 
divided into four different apartments. 
When they had the second brood this 
spring the male acted rather cross for 
a couple of days; he bit the female, 
even tore several scales off her side. 
She remained in a corner a few days 
after that, to heal her wound, and then 
came forward again. Both ‘‘ made 
up” again, and after that had ten 
broods. Everything during that period 
went on charmingly. They both got 
along together finely; her wounded side 
had all healed again, and they were the 
prettiest pair of fish ] had in the house. 
You can imagine my surprise when one 
morning, not many days ago, I found 
the female all bit up in a corner of the 
tank. The male looked at her with 
angry eyes even when I removed her to. 
a different compartment, where she is 
now rapidly recovering. 
What could the quarrel have been 
about? These little creatures are very 
interesting in many ways. 
The young Paradise fish one has 
raised himself in an aquarium are 
naturally great pets. They measure 
now all the way from one-eighth of an 
inch to one and one-half inch, the lat- 
ter showing already the beautiful colors 
of their parents, and the young males. 
may be seen fighting with each other, 
especially after meal times, like young 
roosters in a poultry yard. A small 
tank, say of two and a half or three 
gallons capacity, will accommodate 
about fifty of such little fellows; they 
should be fed twice a day, however, or 
even oftener, and besides that a sunny 
location of the tank is necessary in 
order to stimulate the growth of the 
plants, which under favorable condi- 
tions also supply no small ‘amount of 
healthful fish food. 
But although the Paradise fish has 
claimed much attention this year, the 
old favorite, the Goldfish, has been by 
no means neglected. Many amateurs 
have bred these too, and in a few cases — 
beautiful cross breeds have been made. 
Large finned Comets and Fringe-tails are 
as much in demand as ever, and one 
cannot have too many of these varie- 
ties, provided that one aims to get dif- 
ferently marked specimens. ‘The Fan- 
tails of last Spring’s importation turned 
out to be a healthy lot of fish. I hope 
that the lots which are now nearing 
San Francisco may prove equally as 
