AQUARIUM FISHES 349 



The young are cared for with great solicitude, being herded 

 and watched by both parents. Some individuals may be 

 left until the young are well reared, but it is safer to remove 

 them as soon as the fry reach the age of three or four 

 weeks. The young fishes will require finer food than that 

 furnished the adults, otherwise their diet should be the 

 same. 



Heros fasciatus is the most familiar form, as well as one 

 of the dullest, being of a pale olive color with dark perpen- 

 dicular bands. Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum is bluish-black, 

 with dark bars, and flecked with tiny points of bright blue. 

 Many other forms of Heros, Cichlasoma, Acara and Geoph- 

 agus have been imported at times, but these do not repre- 

 sent a tithe of those which exist. 



A rather aberrant form of this group is a curious fish 

 known as Pterophyllum scalari. The body is short and 

 round, but the anal and dorsal fins are tremendously ex- 

 tended, and the ventrals are represented by two long, an- 

 tennas-like appendages which give the fish a most bizarre 

 appearance. In color it is silvery with heavy black per- 

 pendicular bars. It is said to be found only at Manaos, on 

 the Amazon, but much remains to be learned concerning 

 its distribution. A pair which the writer saw in a private 

 collection in Belgium, in 1912, were the first to reach Eu- 

 rope, and represented an outlay of 600 francs. A few of 

 these fishes have been brought to America at one-fifth of 

 this price or less. Because of their value, they generally are 

 kept in heated tanks, and favored with live food. 



Of the Old World Cichlids, the Mouth-breeders (Para^ 

 tilapia) are of great interest. P. multicolor, the usual 

 species, is from one and one-half to two inches in length 

 and rather plainly colored, although it brightens during the 

 breeding season. Its breeding habits, however, are most 

 extraordinary. After the eggs have been deposited and 



