FISH AND THEIR HABITS

Hutt News, Volume 6, Issue 48, 9 May 1934, Page 8

FISH AND THEIR HABITS

LOWER HUTT RESIDENT'S HOBBY Fish and their habits arouse little interest in tlie average person but to Mrs E. Cannons, of Lower llutt, they i'onu an absorbing study. In her picturesque garden in J3looinlield Terrace there are large pools containing many species of lishj and in a warm ruom iliree capacious glass bowls provide space l'or a large number of minute Jish. It is an aquarium which contains widely diversiii ed species, some beautiful in colouring and other fantastic in shape. In one of the large bowls are scores of tiny lish of the gambusia species. The young ones are the first to be born in New Zealand, and the parents were imported from youth America. Practically all tho tropical countries import this bocuusc of us voracious uppetite i'ur ijio?cjuito liu'vu. Mrs Lumioiis breeds tais larva in an isolated pool ill her garden, but she is careful nut to let it reach the hatching stage.

The cleaning of the containers is performed by tiny snails from ordinary creeks which crawl up and down the glass, cosuniing the vegetation which adheres to it. Mrs Cannons explained that the Jish need stagnant water for their food and therefore the water is never changed. 'Ihe old idea of keeping a goldlish in a scrupulously clean and polished bowl was wrong, she said, because no food was lelt for the lish, which gradually starved to death. One of -Mrs Cannons's most interesting displays is a concrete pool in the garden containing a number of goldlish. Here one may see a nymph, a stumpy Jish in orange and silver with a bushy tail, a telescopic calico villi beautifully ilecked colours and bulging eyes, and a Lady ISulterlly, whose tail gives ample reason for its name.