ANGEL FISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 22

ANGEL FISH.

REARED IN LONDON. THE KING PENGUIN FAMILY. LONDON. An event of special interest at the Zoo Aquarium is the successful rearing of a large number of Amazon ongel fish. Tluse beautiful silver and black fish are diamond-shaped with sail-like dorsal and ventral fins. The duties of guarding the eggs and. the young devolve upon both parents. The eggs are deposited on the upper surfaces of aquatic leaves and on plant stems which have been previously cleaned j by the fish. The eggs—about one hundred and fifty in number —are kept in place: bv a sticky mucous secretion and any | falling off are immediately caught up in the parents' mouths and replaced. Occasionally both mother and father rush to rescue the same egg, when a head-on collision occurs. On first emerging from the egg the j fry might well be mistaken for the young of most fresh water fish, and not until they are a month old do they acquire the distinctive "angel" characteristics. The gift of a king penguin from the Edinburgh Zoo raises hopes of success-1 fully rearing these birds—the giants of their tribe —at the Regent s Park menagerie. To date Edinburgh is the only zoo in the kingdom which has successfully reared the king penguin, although most zoos find little difficulty in propagating the common cape species. The king penguin is peculiar in that it incubates its single egg in an upright position, placing the egg between its instep and an apron of fat on the abdomen. The cock and hen both share this duty in shifts, the one summoning the other to "take over" by ft curious whistling call. The birds then stand shoulder to shoulder and the egg is transferred from one bird to another by a dexterous twist of the ankles. Last year the zoo king penguin laid an egg. but the male was apparently so demoralised by pride at the unexpected occurrence that lie insisted upon taking sole charge of it, to the undoing of the potential family. <