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CHAPTER V.

AMPHIBIANS AND FISHES OF THE FRESH-WATER
AQUARIUM.

IT needs little scientific knowledge to perceive that
an aquarium keeper is likely to be far more successful
if he attempt to keep a few animals, than if he over-
crowd his tank with many. It cannot be too strongly
insisted upon, that more than half the misfortunes and
so-called "bad luck" which are ordinarily experienced
in the keeping of aquaria, are due to over-stocking.
When a few objects only are kept it is surprising how
healthy and vigorous they appear. Moreover, they
sooner get tame, or rather accustomed to their keeper,
than when they are numerous. It is always best to
keep more than one individual of the same species if
the tank be large enough, otherwise there is a sense of
loneliness suggested which detracts from the pleasure
of preserving animals; and before long one sees that
the solitary pets feel this themselves. Two small
fishes or newts are always preferable to one.

Nearly all our native species of animals can be thus kept in captivity. Recently such amphibians as the pretty yellow-spotted salamanders, and those still more curious creatures the Mexican axolotls have been in

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troduced, and aquarium keepers can now purchase them alive at any of the London naturalists. Still, we doubt whether either of these exhibit so much intelligence as our own newts, or if they exceed them in beauty. The great water newt (Triton cristatus), Fig. 9,

Fig. 9.

Great or common male of Water Newt (Triton cristatus).

notwithstanding the roughness of its warty skin, has a bright orange colour on the under part of the body which gives it a very attractive appearance. Its movements in the water are even more graceful than those of fishes. These animals have long been regarded with dislike and suspicion, and not many years ago farmers believed they could cause rheumatism and paralysis to cattle by creeping over their limbs. Even yet this superstition may be found lingering in out-of-the-way corners of England. We have ourselves heard mysterious diseases and complaints in cattle attributed to their drinking pond water in which newts were known to be abundant! The readiness with which country lads pelt newts to death even yet, is a survival" of this ancient and ignorant prejudice. We need not say how thoroughly without foundation is this notion, or descant on the cruelty to which it has given rise.

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The presence of a serrated crest along the back is characteristic of the males both of this species and that of the smooth newt. The latter, however, may easily be identified by its smooth skin and smaller size.

Both male and female of the great warty newt are easily tamed. We have kept them until they would come to the top of the water and take a worm from our fingers. They are voracious feeders, but it is best not to supply them with too much food. When they are in season, the tadpoles of the common frog will be found the best diet to give them. These do not taint the water as worms are apt to do when they die; and it is very interesting to witness the schemes and pursuits the newts indulge in to capture their second cousins. It will be as well not to keep this species and the smooth newt (Lissotriton punctatus) in the same tank, otherwise the latter may fall a victim to the ready appetite of the former. Even if it does not it is placed in hourly dread, and shelters itself so that it can rarely be seen. All the newts use their vertically flattened tails for swimming. The weakness of their legs on land adds to their reptilian appearance, for they are obliged to crawl, and are by no means so agile as the lizards for which they are frequently mistaken. On hot summer days you will see the newts, with their legs extended, floating and basking on the surface of the water.

It is only in the spring and summer months that

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the males of these two species of newts have the dorsal crest fully developed. Like many other animals, birds especially, the sexes are reduced to a common likeness during the winter. When the warmth of later spring begins to be felt, it is astonishing how quickly the dorsal crest, and the characteristic colours and the spots of the males, are developed. In May and June these will be at their height, for the females are then depositing their ova, singly, in the folds of the leaves of the water plants. The eggs are soon hatched, and, as is wellknown, the tadpoles are en

dowed with external gill

tufts (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10.

The great warty newt is

aquarium, on account of its

the best for the fresh-water Tadpole of Newt (three months

greater fondness for the water.

old).

It rarely leaves

it, except to bask on the leaves, or on some stone. Hence it is as well to have a little rockwork projecting above the surface of the water in which these newts may be kept. During winter, it will lie torpidly at the bottom of the tank; but if the latter be always kept in doors (as it ought to be), the period of hybernation will be very brief. Perhaps the reason why the crest is lost in winter is that it becomes absorbed, in lieu of food, by the system, to maintain the action of the involuntary organs. There is a popular error that the tadpoles of frogs and toads

drop their tails and gills when they leave the water for the land. The real fact is that both these organs are absorbed and utilised, and are not dropped or shed at all.

The smooth newt is quite as common as the warty, and its habits are perhaps quite as interesting to the observer. The dorsal crest of the male is not toothed,

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like that of the warty newt, although it is wavy in its outline. Both male and female indulge in graceful evolutions, and not unfrequently may be seen chasing each other in frolicsome sport. The female is exceedingly cautious in selecting the proper places for the deposition of her eggs; and the process of laying them singly or in pairs, and afterwards of folding up the leaves of the plant around them, so as to screen them

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