tlif skin, whicli is exactly like a frog's 

 skin in texture and in color^ a shade of 

 olive green varying to olive brown, with 

 black blotches and mottlings on back and 

 sides, which markings become paler or 

 darker at the will of the fish. The under 

 parts are snowy white. There are no 

 ventral fins at all. The rays in the tail 

 are more suggestive of the toes in the 

 hind feet of a frog — uneven in length — 

 and when the fish is excited at breeding 

 time he ex2)ands his tail, and it looks just 

 like a pair of frog's feet held close to- 

 gether. The mouth has two projecting 

 teeth in each jaw in front, like a rabbit 

 or squirrel, with which the fish seizes and 

 crushes small snails which are his favorite 

 food. He waits until the snail sticks his 

 head out, and will then grab it and shake 

 it from its shell like a terrier worrying a 

 rat! Then there will usually be a bit of 

 snail-meat left in the bottom of the shell, 

 and to get this he will crush the end of 

 the shell. Ordinarily the ball fish swims 

 with his pectoral fins — not with his tail as 

 do most fish, he carries his tail curled up 

 sideways. Only when alarmed will he 

 straighten his tail, making a rapid rush 

 away by flipping out his tail. If taken 

 in the hand he makes a peculiar chatter- 

 ing noise by drawing in air rapidly 

 through his teeth, and in a few seconds 

 he has inflated himself as round as a ball 

 and lies on his back motionless. If laid 

 on the water he will float back downwards 

 (owing to the weight of the backbone, 

 etc.), and as soon as he thinks that the 

 danger is past, he lets out the air rapidly, 

 turns over and dives head foremost to the 

 bottom. The eyes of the ball fish are 

 bronze-blue, large .'ind are moveable inde- 

 pendently of each oilier. One eye will 

 look up at you when you feed him a snail, 

 while the other may look downwards or 

 sideways. His breeding habits are very 

 interesting. At sjiawning time the water 

 sliould be warmer than normally — an ideal 

 tropical a(]uariuni should be used for 



breeding this fish, and the bottom should be 

 covered with clay. There should be some 

 large, smooth, flat stones provided and 

 some small flowerpots (say three) laid on 

 their sides, facing in different directions 

 for hiding places for the female. A few 

 plants ( — Sagittaria) should be planted 

 along the sides of the aquarium. If 

 snails are scarce the ball fish will eat 

 raw beef, fresh and finely scraped. Feed 

 sparingly and be careful to remove with a 

 di}) tube any food that is not eaten at 

 once. The eggs are large, clear, like glass, 

 with a bright brown embryo clearly visible 

 through the shell. They adhere to the 

 surface of the flat stone on which they are 

 deposited, being scattered all over its up- 

 per surface. The male fish hovers over 

 the eggs, and fans the water over them 

 constantly with his jjectoral fins, so as 

 to keep up a fresh supply of oxygen. Ac- 

 cording to temperature the young ones 

 hatch out in from six to ten days, and 

 are then carelessly swept aside by the 

 fins of the parent fish, who do not bother 

 about them at all. The adults may then 

 be set together in another aquarium to 

 breed again. I am not in favor of breed- 

 ing them more than twice in a season, and 

 as soon as the eggs are laid, I would re- 

 move the female or she may be bitten to 

 death by the male. The 3H)uug ones eat 

 finely powdered fishfood. This fish is un- 

 questionably the greatest curiosity among 

 all known aquarium fishes, and it is to be 

 hoped that some one will succeed in 

 breeding some this summer, and will re- 

 port his success in an article to this maga- 

 zine. 



About one hundred species of submerged 

 aquatic plants, most of which arc fit for 

 aquarium use, occur in the U. S. east of 

 tile Rocky Mountains. Closer exi)loration 

 of the Southern States will add more to 

 this luiuiber. 



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