STRANGE TROPICAL FISH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLI, Issue 9540, 20 June 1921, Page 8

STRANGE TROPICAL FISH.

HARE SPECIES REVEAOED. One of the strangest collections of live tropical aquarium fish imported into England recently arrived- m London. ' • . The consignment- comprises, over 1000 fish, of 29 species,, collected, from all quarters of the globe. Several of the species have never before been seen m England alive. Among the latter species ar&> blackhanded sunfish, from America ;. golden pike, from Japan ; a new. kind. of. Paradise fish , from the rice- swamps of Japan ; > and a rare little haplochilus i'rom Gape Lopez, as red. as a boiled lobster, with green eyes. Anglers would be practically interested m two of the species, for onej known as belonesox belisanos,> which came from Singapore, is the smallest pike m the world, measuring, when lull grown, scarcely 2 inches. The other, despite its name — tetra^ gonopterus rubropicta— is the smallest salmon m existence. The adult- measures barel^ an inch, and, as it would probably take twenty of theses tiny rish to equal a sovereign m weight, and they are priced at 10s a pair.,, the fish ma- be said to be worth five times its weight m gold. . , " ■ A half-moon fish, from 2000 miles up the Amazon, has already been? purchased for £20. By gaslight it. casts; a phosphorescent glow resembling, moonlight. • , jK Mouthbreeders, fr6m Africa, were also included' m- the collection, the female of which carries her newlyhatched young m her mouth, only permitting them to leavte their strange nursery at night to search for infusorium food. • ■ • '.'....