TELEOSTEI 251 



Japanese Minnow (Pseudorasbora parva ?) 



A number of minnows from the rice-fields of Japan were imported 

 to the ponds at Opawa by the late Mr A. M. Johnson. These probably 

 belonged to the species named above. Several were distributed, but 

 I have no word of their subsequent history. 



Gudgeon (Gobio fluviatilis) 



In 1864 Mr A. M. Johnson shipped a number of gudgeon on 

 board the ' British Empire ' for Canterbury, but none of them survived 

 the voyage. 



In 1868 another attempt was made by Mr Frank Buckland, a 

 number of fish from the Thames, presented by Mr S. Ponder, being 

 shipped to the Otago Society by the ' Celestial Queen.' 



This shipment was also unsuccessful. 



Barbel {Barbus vulgaris) 



Several specimens of barbel were included in Mr Johnson's un- 

 fortunately unsuccessful experiment, made in 1864. 



Bleak (Alburnus lucidus) 



Mr Johnson also shipped some bleak by the ' British Empire ' in 

 1864, but all died on the way out. The tank in which these and several 

 other species of fish were carried was lined with slate, and so divided 

 by perforated partitions that fresh water flowed freely through if, 

 there were also contrivances for aerating the water. The whole was 

 surrounded with a framework case, with double cane-matting, which 



presented, while it is said not to bite at the hook in its native land. So, in becoming 

 Americanised, it has become quite a diflferent fish in habit, if not in form. 



The rapidity of growth, too, which characterised many of those distributed by 

 the U.S. Fish Commission during the first four or five years, seemed to foreshadow 

 another important change of habit. It was supposed that the waters of this country 

 were more favourable for its development than those of its native land. But in 

 this, I fear, we are doomed to disappointment. Further experience has shown that 

 this remarkable growth of which we hear so much, and of which there are many 

 examples on record, was due to the abundance of food with which the carp were 

 supplied, rather than to other causes. The small number furnished by the Govern- 

 ment to each applicant — usually not over twenty — were frequently placed in large 

 ponds, and often at the close of the first summer the fish had reached a weight of 

 from one to two pounds apiece, and by the end of the second summer from four 

 to five pounds, and in some instances their growth far exceeded this. But now, since 

 they have multiplied so that we can fully stock our ponds, their growth is much less 

 rapid. In the autumn of 1884 the writer placed a little over 2500 carp, then one 

 summer old and much larger than their parents when received from the Fish 

 Commission, in a five-acre pond. In the following autumn they were found to 

 average about eleven ounces each ; and last autumn, being the close of their third 

 summer, they fell a little short of a pound apiece, and this, too, with the number 

 in the pond reduced about one-fourth. In another pond of about half the size the 

 growth was no more rapid." 



