70 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
in miniature to a spherical nest with one or two 
holes for entrance and exit. 
When the nest is complete, a female is coaxed 
in to deposit her spawn, which the male im- 
mediately fertilizes, afterward driving off this 
mate and perhaps seeking another, whose eggs 
are added to the first and also fertilized. A 
nest may contain the eggs of three or more 
females, and each female may lay eggs in more 
than one nest. In any event the females are 
not allowed to approach the nest again after 
spawning, the male taking up his station near 
at hand and rushing furiously at any living 
object that so much as peers at the nest through 
the stems of a neighboring plaat. He will kill 
any female that dares to approach after the 
eggs are ready for incubation. 
His chief duty is the defense and aeration 
of the eggs, and this he performs with extra- 
ordinary valor and labor, his eyes ever alert 
for foes, his pectoral fins kept rapidly fanning 
the tiny living jewels nearly every minute of 
the day and night. 
The young hatch in from eight days to two 
weeks, and require infusoria and later daphnia 
and prepared foods. 
Like other fishes that guard the eggs and 
young, the male, after his charges hatch and 
seek to leave the nest, will pick them up in his 
mouth and place them in the nest again and 
again, until the time is ripe for them to set 
forth in search of their own fortunes. And 
like other fishes, the male, when his offspring 
are at last ready to shift for themselves, may 
suddenly abandon his parental instinct and gob- 
ble them up, though cases are recorded where 
he has cared for his young for a month after 
hatching. While reasonable care should be 
taken to remove him at the crucial time, it 
must be remembered that if there are other 
fishes present and the parent is removed too 
soon, they will immediately proceed to feast 
upon the helpless young. 
The sticklebacks prefer chopped fresh meat 
and shellfish, insects, worms, small crustaceans, 
etc., but will accept boiled cereals and other 
foods. 
They are said to breed more than once in a 
season, though this has not happened at the 
Aquarium. 
Tue SuNFIsHES AND TuHerr ALLIES 
Common Sunfish—Eupomotis gibbosus 
Little Sunfish—Enneacanthus obesus 
Spotted or Diamond Sunfish—E. gloriosus 
Long-eared Sunfish—Lepomis megalotis 
Red-breasted Sunfish—L. auritus 
Blue-gill Sunfish—L. pallidus 
Black-banded Sunfish—Mesogonistius chae- 
todon 
Red-Eye or Rock Bass—dAmbloplites rupes- 
tris 
Crappie—Pomoxis 
others ) 
Large sunfishes of all species except the 
black-banded sunfish are notoriously pugnaci- 
ous, and only small specimens are therefore 
suitable for the home aquarium. Among the 
most beautiful of our small native fishes, their 
bodies glisten as though set with gems, in 
which emeralds and pearls predominate in the 
common and spotted sunfishes, with garnets 
set in the iris. 
The beautiful red-eye and black-and-white 
crappie, nearly related to the “‘sunnies,’”’ agree 
very well with sunfishes of approximately their 
size. 
annularis various 
(and 
The black-banded sunfish, easily the aristo- 
crat of the tribe, and somewhat less hardy 
than the others, can be maintained with the 
others but really deserves a tank all by itself 
or shared only by the little sunfish or spotted 
sunfish, since they attain about the same size. 
A dozen black-banded sunfishes, sedate, ex- 
quisite little creatures with their pearl-gray 
bodies richly striped with black and their ven- 
tral fins of black and orange, make as hand- 
some an array as one could hope for. They 
have even been mistaken, when very small, for 
the rare Brazilian half-moon fish. They are 
so docile that they can be kept with faney gold- 
fishes, never offering to nibble their long tails. 
The sunfishes do not care for prepared fish 
foods. Some specimens will take a little boiled 
or baked white potato or hard boiled egg-yolk, 
or chopped fish. All accept minced shellfish 
and raw beef or lamb, and are partial to flies, 
mosquito larvae, small crustaceans, white worms 
(Enchytraeids), ete. 
Most sunfishes grow to be eight inches long, 
but the spotted sunfish measures at full maturity 
only four inches. The black-banded sunfish 
attains a length of but three or at most four 
inches and is most attractive for the home 
aquarium when about one and a quarter inches 
long. The same may be said of the little sun- 
fish. It is said that the black-banded sunfish 
breeds when ten months old, constructing a 
hollow nest among plants or in the sand, the 
eggs numbering upward of a hundred and 
