UNIQE TROUT MUSEUM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 190, 13 August 1931, Page 11

UNIQE TROUT MUSEUM

REMARKABLE * ‘FREAKS ’ ’ ■■ C».»N>E R V ATOR ’S COLLECTION ,| ROTOR I’A. Aug. 11. An interesting collection of trou • j “freaks” is possessed by Mr A. Kean ; < .hi- rvator of fish and game at Roto , rua. '• Carefully preserved in glass bottles .Mr Kean has double-headed trout double-tailed trout, four-eyed trout one-eyed trout, biamese’-twin trout am ’ [other freaks, which, had they grown t< I any size, could only have been regard as monstrosities. Such creature: ! seldom, if ever, live beyond the spra I or fingerling stage and it is for thi. I reason that all of the specimens an : very small in size. j The specimens have all been collect ed in hatcheries and as a “freak” oc . curs perhaps once in 10,000 fry, thei: ; collection is largely a matter of gooi [fortune. Perhaps the most extraordin ary of these freaks is a small rainbow • trout with two perfectly-formed heads ; but with the bodies to which thosi heads are attached merging into om ■| near the dorsal fin. There are thre< j pairs of “Siamese twins.” i Another two-headed freak has sue! pronounced spinal curvature that it body makes a complete spiral. It i a most weird-looking creature, resemb ling more some ancient heraldic figun than any natural species. One small fingerling, probably abou six weeks old at the time of death, hat an overdeveloped head with four eye: : set in a row, while another, otherwise ■ very similar in appearance, has onb gone eye—a species of piscatorial Cyc i ‘ops- '