Garden Ponds are a great way to enjoy your California backyard

Fish Breeding The breeding tank should be set up in the ordinary way with plants, etc. ; the snails should be removed-they will eat the eggs- and at one end of the tank place a large clump of myriophyllum or a similar plant. When the female is chased through the dense vegetation the friction on her sides assists matters. Eventually she will lay the eggs among the plants and the male, hovering near, will eject the milt that is to fertilize the eggs. As the milt falls haphazard in the water, in a large tank there is the possibility of it missing many of the eggs. The ideal size for a breeding aquarium is two feet long by a foot high and a foot deep.

The process of laying and fertilizing the eggs may last from dawn until late afternoon, never during the night, and about 2,000 eggs may be laid. The eggs are pale yellow in colour and are slightly sticky. They adhere to the plants as soon as they are ejected. If the fishes show a tendency to eat them as they are deposited, the pieces of plant to which they are sticking should be removed to another tank.

Now this is where the snag in breeding and raising fish comes in-presumably, by good fortune, 2,000 eggs are laid and by a further stroke of luck all hatch out successfully. Each of these 2,000 fry will require a gallon of water to develop in ; at about a month old they will need two gallons for each fish. In other words, tanks with a total capacity of 4,000 gallons will be required. A tank four feet long by a foot wide and the same high will hold roughly 22 gallons ; consequently, to raise this vast family, nearly two hundred such tanks will be necessary.

The only satisfactory method of dealing with the problem is to have concrete tanks in units of about eight feet in length, two feet wide and a foot deep, built in suitable sheds, for rearing the fry. Moreover, if the offspring are born in May, by the end of July they must be transferred to open-air ponds to harden and develop. Ponds suitable for this purpose should hold at least 3,000 gallons.

It will be seen, then, that to raise fishes on a large scale a certain amount of capital is necessary, besides a great deal of patience, system and the necessary knowledge. Breeding fancy and other expensive fishes is a different matter, a family of a hundred can be raised without much expense and if the offspring turn out well a fair profit will be shown.