One of the most interesting of all the wrasses is a small species from King George's Sound, which, while retaining the principal characters common to the group, has assumed the general shape and proportions of the pipe-fish.
The third family of the wrasses are remarkable chiefly on account of the fact that they produce their young alive. These fishes are confined to the temperate regions of the North Pacific.
The Chromids constitute the last family of the wrasse-like group. Numerous in species, they are all dwellers in fresh-water. One species occurs in amazing numbers in the Lake of Galilee, shoals over an acre in extent, and so closely packed that movement seemed almost impossible, having been recorded. They are taken in such enormous numbers that the nets in which they are caught often break. Occasionally shoals are carried down the Jordan into the Dead Sea; but the fish never get farther than a few yards, becoming stupefied almost at once, and, turning over on their backs, fall an easy prey to flocks of cormorants and kingfishers. Heaps of putrefying carcases are washed ashore, poisoning the atmosphere, in spite of the presence of flocks of ravens and vultures which have gathered to the feast.
Photo by H. V. Letkmann] [New York.
A WRASSE.
The majority of the Wrasses are brilliantly coloured.
Another species is remarkable for its peculiar method of protecting the eggs and young. The female deposits the eggs, over 200 in number, in a small hole worked out among the roots of reeds and rushes. There they are taken into the mouth of the male one by one, and retained till hatched a few days later. The young fry remain in this nursery for some considerable time, increasing rapidly in size, so that the father-nurse is unable to close his mouth. Some of the young develop among the gills; others lie, closely packed, with their heads turned towards the mouth of the parent, remaining in this position till nearly 4 inches long, when they are ejected or wriggle out to forage for themselves.