Madeleine keeps a record of how many fish she catches each month. Last month she caught three types of fish: perch bream and minnow. The ratio of perch to bream was 7:12 The ratio of bream to minnow was 4:3 What is the smallest number of fish she could have caught last month?

## Step1:First, we need to find a common number for bream in both ratios. The common number is the least common multiple (LCM) of the two numbers. The LCM of 12 and 4 is 12.## Step2:Now, we adjust the ratios to have the same number for bream. The ratio of perch to bream becomes and the ratio of bream to minnow becomes .## Step3:We can now combine these ratios to get the ratio of perch to bream to minnow, which is .## Step4:The smallest number of fish she could have caught last month is the sum of the numbers in the combined ratio, which is .