Evening star., 1934-05-11

things on the piscatorial horizon.
-Four reports have come to this desk
recently Of specimens of this fish,
widely known as the Siamese fighting
fish, which have disappeared out of
home tanks without leaving a trace
behind.
Three of these four owners violated
one of the primary rules Of fish keep
ing in the home by not having glass
covers atop the tanks.
The fourth said that he knew his
Beta could not have jumped out"
because the cover glass has been on at
all times.
Ordinarily fish which leaps out of
an aquarium. mostly at night, is
found stifY and dry on the rug In
the morning.
But not SO these Bettas.
One fancier declared that he used q
fiashlight in thoroughly exploring the
entire floor of the room, and that
there was absolutely no trace of 1t to
be found.
A dealer had a similar experience
one Of four Bettas (kept in one tank
with glass partitions between) being
lost over night. 1t was possible in
this case that the fish, not more than
2 inches long, had been trampled on
by customers and ground to bits.
Has the Beta some peculiar prop
erty about 1t which makes 1t Suscep-
tible to complete withering away when
deprived Of moisture?
Yet it has bones. as all vertebrates
and one would think OF hand that
these might be left, no matter how
much the remainder Of the carcass
dried up.
Perhaps there is something unex-
planned in the construction and COM
position OF these peculiar animals, SC
much liked by some aquarists. toler-
ated merely by others, actively dis
liked by still others.
1t may be that magic has some.
thing to do with 1t, as strange as that
may sound to some readers. These
fishes are from a far land, where the
things of magic are still much es.
teemed. 1t will not do for us of the
matter of fact United States to sneel
too openly at such matters. The
world Is large. and no doubt there
are many things which are not con-
tanned in our hurry-up philosophy.
II there is any aquarium fish, one
may think, which could totally dis
appear, in thin air, as 1t were. IL il
wanted to. it would be the Beta, In
nf iot w 20
flower blue, or any other coloration.
A fine male veil-tail Beta, facing
another male. is about as splendid
a looking creature, as far as sheer
colOration is concerned, as one will
find among the So-called tropical
fishes ordinarily kept in the modern
home aquarium
And that is about as far as some
of US will 60 when it comes TO this
particular fish. To us its head Is
snake-like. its ability to curve its body
still more serpentine. 1t totally lacks
the appearance of most fishes. that
naive something or other which makes
the Angel fishes and many others. es-
pecially the members OF the GOuraml
family, have such genuine appeal To
Nature lovers.
The latest book on tropical fishes
they are all rushing to put out books
now-contains the statement that one
should never permit q fish to lear
out Of the tank. as such an overt act
Is necessarily fatal.
Such q statement, OF course, Is alb
surd. One can but wonder how any
one who has handled small aquarium
pets ever could get the idea. The writer
here has had an Angel flsh (Scalare)
Jump out once, a three-spot Gouram
once, a Copeina guttata four times
without any injury or harm whatever
to the fish. These leaps were all made
while transferring the fishes from one
tank to another, or while the cover
lid was lifted for q few minutes.
1t is net necessary at all to declare
such jumps are fatal" just to in
veiglc readers to invest in and use