38 



THE 



AQUARIUM 



# 



One Saturday morning before leaving" 

 home I noticed that the strife was ap- 

 parently over, and that the combatants 

 seemed anxious to become reconciled. 

 On my return at 2:30 P. M. I found to 

 my great regret that the female had 

 made a deposit of eggs, covering a nearly 

 round spot about '1" diameter on her 

 side of the glass partition, and the male 

 was frantically trying to fertilize them. 



I removed the partition with the eggs 

 remaining on it and have kept it now 

 for several months as a specimen. But 

 very few of the eggs have fallen off, al- 

 though no fixing solution was used to 

 secure them. 



The spawning time was now over, and 

 am pleased to state that there was no 

 more scrapping. Within a week the fish 

 were back to normal color, and did not 

 molest the vegetation which had again 

 been planted. 



The next spawning occurred in April, 

 1913, when the tank was again nicely 

 balanced. A flower pot 4" diameter at 

 the wide end was prepared by knocking 

 out the bottom and filing off the sharp 

 edges and placed on its side in the tank 

 with the wide end towards the front. 

 At once both the specimens started in 

 to clean it up, in spite of the fact that 

 it had been most carefully scrubbed. 



During this time they both took on a 

 beautiful red color, and the maneuvers 

 of their mating were very interesting to 

 watch. The male would start to swim 

 around the female, and then she would 

 start to swim around him, with the re- 

 sult that they were constantly swim- 

 ming in circles. Then one would come 

 in close to the side of the other and de- 

 liver a love slap with the tail, backing 

 ofif and strutting like a peacock, dis- 

 playing all the emerald green spots 

 which were like one encrusted mass of 



scintillating jewels. The growth of the 

 roe in the female had now become cjuite 

 perceptible. 



Fortunately I was able to observe the 

 actual deposit of the eggs on the pot, as 

 it occurred on Sunday morning. The 

 female made a deposit by swimming in 

 circles above and just touching the spot 

 selected for a few moments, then on 

 moving to one side was immediately fol- 

 lowed up by the male, who apparently 

 fertilized the different deposits as fast 

 as they were made. This deposit was 

 about the same size as the one previous- 

 ly described. When it was completed 

 the pair took turns in hovering over the 

 eggs and fanning with the pectoral fins 

 to keep fresh water coming over them 

 and to keep silt and dirt from lodging 

 among them. They kept up this process 

 for forty-eight hours, one fanning while 

 the other dug little hollows in the sand 

 at the roots of some plants they had 

 cropped off. The temperature of the 

 water was about 75 degrees to 78 de- 

 grees Fahrenheit, and the hatching was 

 completed in a little over ("0 hours. 



As fast as the eggs hatched, the young 

 were taken in the mouths of the parent 

 fish and deposited in one of these hol- 

 lows. When they had all been removed 

 from the pot, the parents again took 

 turns in fanning the little group, which, 

 to the naked eye, appeared like a small 

 mass of agitated gelatine, bvit on closer 

 inspection with a powerful reading glass 

 the baby fish were plainly discernible. 

 On the stomach of each I could see the 

 yolk-sack of the egg which furnishes 

 nourishment for the little fellows until 

 they are able to swim and hunt their 

 own food. 



It took about four days for them to 

 absorb the yolk-sacks, during which 

 time each little individual fish kept up 



