66 
The Common Gold and Silverfish (pages 15-18), so well 
known to all who keep aquaria, are closely related to the Prussian 
carp from which they differ only in colour. They are supposed to 
have been introduced into this country from China early in the 
seventeenth century. 
The Hybrid Carp (page 19), figured in our illustration is a cross 
between the common and the Prussian carp. There are no barbels 
at its mouth, but the dorsal fin is deeply concave. This hybrid is 
often found in ponds and lakes which contain the parent species. 
All these carp are, for the most part, herbivorous, dwelling, as a 
rule, in ponds and lakes. They obtain their food by grovelling in 
the mud with their leathery snouts and they all exhibit very 
gregarious tendencies, swimming always in large shoals. Some of 
these fish live to a great age and often reach twenty pounds or more 
in weight. 
There are some rather different kinds of small carp, mostly con- 
fined to the warmer parts of Asia, which have a single European 
representative. This is the Bitterling (page 20), which is silvery 
and roacli-like in appearance and is usually found in running water. 
Our illustration gives a life-sized picture of this little fish. 
Gudgeon (pages 21-22), are essentially river fish, preferring clear 
streams with a gravelly bottom, where they lie in very large shoals. 
Their colour and markings so exactly harmonise with these surround- 
ings that it is only with difficulty that they can be distinguished 
from the stones amongst which they lie. Their food consists chiefly 
of water insects, worms and the smaller creatures which make their 
homes among the gravel. 
There are four of our English fish between which most people 
find it difficult to discriminate. They are Roach, Dace, Chub 
and Rudd (pages 23-31). All these are very silvery in appear- 
ance and are often very much alike in the colour of the fins. They 
abound in rivers and often in lakes, swimming in large companies and 
frequently these shoals contain all four kinds of fish, which renders the 
task of distinguishing them even more difficult. The red eye and red 
fins of the roach at once separate it from the dace, and the former 
is usually a much broader fish than the latter. Chub are very 
similar to dace, but they may be easily distinguished from one 
another when it is remembered that the anal fin (i.e., the fin nearest 
the tail on the under surface) is convex in the chub and deeply 
concave in the dace. Rudd like roach are broad fish with bright 
red fins, but there is a difference in the position of the dorsal fin. In 
the roach that member is placed immediately above the ventral fins I 
{i.e., the paired appendages just in front of the anal fin on the under 
surface) while in the rudd its position is mid-way between the anal 
and the ventral fins. The typical rudd has a light olive green back, 
silvery sides shading off to white underneath and bright red fins. 
There is however a variety occasionally found which has transparent i 
yellowish fins. 
Minnow (page 32). This lively little fish used to be very ' 
common in most districts, but it is now almost unknown in some 
parts where it once occurred in plenty. This is probably due to the 
fact that many thousands are annually netted to supply the “live- I 
bait ” of the angler. Thi3 fish is usually found in large shoals in 
clear streams where it feeds on minute water-life, flies and midges. 
Our illustration is about life size. 
The Golden Orfe (page 33) is a domesticated variety of the ide, 
a continental fish much like the roach in form and habits. The 
