60 Aquatic Lite 
general appearance after the fight sug- 
gests that of a sailing ship emerging from 
a hot action, with her canvas hanging in 
streamers, her topmasts shot away, and 
her crew gasping for breath, but stu 
ready to fight again. The combatants 
sometimes succumb to a long contest, but 
generally they only make superficial 
damage, and are immediately ready to 
feed. After a match they are always 
rested for a week or longer, according to 
the extent of their injuries, and most 
of the rents and cuts are repaired by na- 
ture. Enthusiastic owners often wage 
six or seven pounds or more on their 
favorites, and many people earn a little 
money in this way by breeding fighting 
fish and then backing them against 
others—London Field. 
A New Parasite of the 
Buffalo Fish 
Dr. T. B. Magath, investigator at the 
Fisheries Biological Station at Fairport, 
Iowa, has discovered a new and evident- 
ly important form of trematode worm, 
which infests buffalo fishes in ponds. 
The life history of the parasite has 
been definitely worked out, and is briefly 
as follows: 
The adult trematode, living in the 
alimentary tract of the buffalo fish, ex- 
pels its eggs, which pass out into the 
water with the feces of the fish. From 
these eggs, which are “laid” during 
the late summer, there hatches in the 
fall a ciliated embryo (mericidium), 
which swims in the water until it finds a 
snail of the species Planorbis trivolvis. 
Into this snail it works its way and 
eventually encysts in its host’s liver. In 
the usual manner it grows and multiples 
there during winter and spring, and in 
summer emerges from the snail as a tail- 
ed and styleted cercaria. This larva can 
live for several hours in the water, but 
must find a May fly larva for its second 
intermediate host, into which it bores 
and encysts just beneath the cuticle. If 
the buffalofish eats the infected larva it 
obtains the young parasite, which very 
rapidly develops and assumes in late 
summer the adult form ready to expel 
its eggs. The association of the buf- 
falofish, the snail, and May fly larva 
seems to be essential for the perpetua- 
tion of the parasite. The probable im- 
portance of the form is suggested by 
the fact that a serious mortality occur- 
red among the fishes that were so in- 
fested. 
Dr. Magath also investigated the life 
history of the trematode parasite of the 
bluegill sunfish, which is found in the 
larval stage in that fish and in the adult 
stage in the  kingfisher.—Fisheries’ 
Service Bulletin. 
Ss Me 
Ceo WY, ines, Ot JPallaceloma, 
who seems to own all the specimens of 
Scatophagus argus living in this country 
today, has made an interesting observa- 
tion. When four or five were placed in 
a tank well populated with Hydra, they 
were observed to devour a few, and soon 
after all had disappeared. ‘The supposi- 
tion is that the “Scats” ate them, so here 
at last is a fish with a kindly disposition 
that finds the pest to its liking. 
see 
Whether sand or gravel is best in an 
aquarium 1s a mooted question. Fan- 
ciers are about equally divided, and both 
factions have success. 
— > 
Possibly one reason some men fail to 
make money in the aquarium business 1s 
that they rely upon the fishes to do 
all the work. 
—— 
Science can cut through anything ex- 
cept mental concrete. 
