88 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
Bepartments : 
Mammals Aquarium 
W.T. Hornapay. C. H. Townsrnpb. 
Birds Reptiles 
Lek S. CRANDALL. Raymonp L. Ditmars 
WittiaM Beest. Honorary Curator, Birds 
Published bi-monthly at the Office of the Society. 
111 Broadway, New York City. 
Yearly by Mail, $1.00. 
MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 
Copyright, 1920, by the New York Zoological Society. 
Each author is responsible for the scientific accuracy 
and the proof reading of his contribution. 
Etwin R. Sansorn, Editor 
Vou. XXIV, No. 4 
Jury, 1921 
As in numerous other species of small fishes, 
the fins of the male, notably dorsal and anal, 
are projected to a point, while those of the 
female are slightly rounded. 
This species has lived for two years at the 
Aquarium, and responds to the same treatment 
and care as that applied to the Chanchito. 
Brazitian Hartr-Moon or Scalare 
This alluring fish of the Amazon, Essequibo 
and other South American waters, commonly 
called Scalare from its scientific name, Ptero- 
phyllum scalare (ter-o-fil-lum sca-la-re), is 
sought by fish fanciers on both. sides of the 
Atlantic, yet it is said there have been few suc- 
cessful breeders of the species. 
The fish requires heated water in winter in 
the climate of New York, and unless one has a 
conservatory or is willing to install a heating 
system, is not suited to the home. 
At the Aquarium it has been exhibited in water 
artificially heated in winter to 68 degrees or 
72 degrees and has lived for two years, though 
no attempt was made to breed it. 
The breeding of this fish, which may occur 
several times in one year, has been described 
by various experimenters as a most interesting 
process. The eggs are deposited on the glass 
sides of the aquarium, or, preferably, on broad- 
leaved plants, the male fertilizing them as rap- 
idly as they are laid; and both parents keep the 
supply of oxygen fresh over them by fanning 
them constantly for from two and a half to four 
days, when the young may be expected to hatch. 
The fry cling to the plants and the parents 
move them about from one leaf to another. 
The male, which can be distinguished by his 
longer dorsal fin, and also by the strange fact 
—for a fish—that he is of inferior beauty to 
the female, digs a hollow in the sand, and both 
parents transfer the young to it. Some say the 
babies swim in seven days, returning every 
night to the hollow. 
Some breeders have found the parents safe 
with the fry for eight days; others found cani- 
balism commencing before that time and removed 
the parents on the sixth day. 
All agree that these fishes prefer live food 
and will eat beetles and bugs, worms, flies, ete. 
At the Aquarium we fed them on minced beef 
and shellfish, which they ate ravenously. 
In about five weeks the young resemble the 
parents in form, and if the water is kept at the 
proper temperature they generally prove hardy. 
They will eat infusorians, canned shrimp, pre- 
pared foods, ete. They are also plant-eaters 
and like Riccia, Salvinia and other floating 
plants. 
The form of the male is highly attractive, all 
of his fins except the pectoral being drawn out 
in long filaments, while those of the female end 
in a sharp point. 
Adult half-moons grow to be the size of a 
man’s hand. Even Europeans come to the 
Aquarium to inquire where they can be bought. 
So far as we know in New York, the only suc- 
cessful breeders of half-moons in this country 
are Mr. William L. Paullin of Prospect Park, 
Pennsylvania, to whose accounts of his experi- 
ments, published in Aquatic Life, we are in- 
debted for some of the foregoing statements, 
and Mr. Franklin Barrett of Philadelphia, who 
succeeded in raising one hundred specimens in 
the spring of 1921. 
THe Rep CHromMipe 
The Red Chromide (Hemichromis bimaculatus ) 
is one of the handsomest of the toy fishes coming 
to America from African waters, the female be- 
ing quite as brilliantly colored as the male. The 
rich reddish brown and blue of the back and 
sides is enhanced by a scarlet throat, and three 
characteristic black spots appear, one on the 
gill cover, another at the base of the caudal fin, 
and the third in the center of the body. Trzm- 
aculatus (three-spotted) would be a more appro- 
priate name. 
The eggs are adhesive like those of the Brazil- 
ian half-moon, and the parents take turns in 
guarding them, removing the babies in their 
mouths to hollows scooped in the sand. Like 
Chanchitos, they dig up plants in their efforts 
to scoop these hollows. At almost any time 
after the young are five days old, one may ex- 
