Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-11
SOME BIG NEWS ABOUT FISH.
New Sorts TO be Matched by the Fish
Commission at the Carp Ponds.

FRESH WATER FIsHEs-soMk QUEER CREATURES.
The ponds near the Washington monument
will soon be utilized by the fish commission
for series Of experiments in the artificial
! propagation of certain valuable food fishes.
hitherto unmeddled with. which are becoming
so rapidly scarcer that their practical extinction
would be matter of only few years if moth
ing were done to restock the waters Among
these precious fishes are the striped bass
otherwise known the rock fish-the halibut.
the common mackereI and the Spanish mack
erel. What has already been done for the
! shad must be done for them. if their useful
ness is not to be lost to man. Nor can their
loss be at all afforded. Think what vacancy
| In the breakfast menu the absence of the sue
| sulent mackerel. with his accompanying bit Of
| lemon would create! How the sportsman
| not considering the house keeper-would
| grleve for that noble game, the striped bass.
| And what tears the trawl fishermen would shed
over the vanished halibut-a fish that now. be-
cause he Is so huge and costs SO much pound,
they regard as rich prize,
| 10 avoid such a disaster the artificial hatch
! ing OF these four fishes eggs will be begun be-
Tore iong-frst, experimentally, in the ponds
mere, and afterward at the regular propagating
! stations in various parts of the United States
| AT present the striped bass and the mackerel
| are under observation-for the study of their
naDltS, as TO spawning and so on-in the won
derful aquaria of the fish commission.
WILD FISH IN CAPTIVITY.
Before the commission accomplished the feat,
quite recently, no one had ever succeeded in
keeping such wild carniyorous fishes as the
mackerel and halibut healthy and happy in
confinement. These untamable cannibals ALWAYS
worried their lives out in aquaria as birds of
the woods do in cages. tortured by tear and re-
fusing food until they ded-as do nearly all
carnlvorous beasts i'll captivity-of heart disease.
But the commission found that the trouble was
merely that the aquaria used were too small: it
built big ones-gEeat tanks in which the fish
could swim out of sight and imagine them
selves IN the vastly deep-and under such con-
dltlons the mackerel and its fellow ichthvo-
phagi throve famously. 1t will soon be learned
by observation how the mackeral spawns-in a
big glass box-and the knowledge thus gained
can be readily applied to the production of eggs
and subsequent mackerel fry by myriads for
letting loose on the coast. The same sort of
thing will be done with the halibut striped
bass and Spanish mackerel This last named
fish is one of the most delicious known it has
never been very plentiful and good supply
of II would be most welcome to the markets.
Speaking of spawning, curious thing is hap
penInS just now in one of the tanks at the COM
missions building. The yellow perch, owing to
the unusually warm weather, are spawning in
their aquarium, though their spawning season is
notuntll March. From this fact the conclusion
has been drawn that fish would spawn all the
year round if the water were kept at lust the
right temperature. The commission expects
soon to make use of novel modification of
the aquarium idea in the shape of what NAV be
called water hot beds-ponds under glass-for
which conditions, as to sunlight and otherwise,
much more nearly resembling those of nature
than are realized by aquaria will be obtain
able.
SALT FISH MADE FRESH.
Also experiments are to be begun before long
in the transferring of fish from salt water to
fresh and vice versa. 1t would be very NICE
the commission thinks if the mullet of the
gulf could be domesticated in the great lakes
and the whitetish made to share the ocean
waters with the cod And there seems to
be no good reason wherefore such things
should not be accomplished In nature the
brook trout, making its way from streams near
the coast into the sea, becomes the silver trout,
and goes on its briny path rejoicing. Smelt.
white perch and aewives will endure perpetual
landlocking and yet continue to thrive and
multiply well as in salt water Salmon and
many other fishes forsake the ocean for the
fresh water of the rivers at the spawning season
every year to lay their eggs A certain change
always takes place, curiousy enough in fish
that is made to live in a water for which nature
has not intended it. A brook front in lake
grows to be much larger animal and different
altogether; in a well it becomes long and thin
perhaps partly from failure of liberal food
".
and keep 1t there to make the water clean and
clear, they cay. An attempt is to be made
soon, by the way, to artiticially propagate the
mullet of the gulf-that most delicious
pf n-biting fishes-for acclimatization
in northern waters. 1t would be a
most valuable addition to the food supply.
Several mullet are now doing exceedingly well
in one of the commissions aquaria. The
favorite way of catching them down south is
with a circular net II feet across, which is
tln,r H.,
from the shore or a boat when school of the
fish is seen in the shadows. The leads fringing
the circumference of the next sink at once so
that the prey is enclosed and captured, then it
is drawn in with rope, the leads dragging
together by gravity and preventing the escape
of the victims. Florida negroes are often very
skllful in throwing the least net it Is called
and HE STAR writer has frequently seen one
"chucked 30 feet with accuracy and success,
The transferring of salt water fish to fresh
water and the reverse can be accomplished
best by slow degrees For such purposes the
water hot beds, in which the water can be made
fresher or salter as gradually as may be de-
sired, are expected to be most useful. Once
accustom a few individual fishes of a given
species to the new water, SO that they well
and contented, their progeny, born to the
novel element, will be as well adapted to it as
any.
THE WONDERFUL AQUARIA.
For long time the the fish commission got
all the salt water for its marine aquaria from the
sea ITSELF employing people to procure it by
the thousands of cans from steamers; but now,
fin ding it just as good, they manufacture it all
the mselves from Turks Island salt, which is
merely residue from evaporated sea water,
by the simple addition of the proper proper
ton of fresh water.
The commission is really proud of its aqua
| rum show, which is at present one of the most
interesting sights of Washington. Nothing
could well be imagined more attractive than
the grotto lined with big windows of glass;
through which one can see all sorts of fishes
disporting themselves. For long time after
this exhibition opened last March the
water was so obscure that a good view Of the
contents of the aquaria could not be had, but
now it has been filtered out until it is like crys-
tai in most of the tanks. and the spectacle
offered is simply fascinating. One does not
know whether to find most exciting the Chesa-
peake crabs, the mullets, the striped bass, the
gizzard shad the Holsters, or other things
This is now the only aquarium show in this
country. One was started few years ago in
New York and 100000 was spent upon it be-
fore 1t was given up as Improbable. The rea-
son it was Improbable was that SO many of the
fish died-all because the conditions created
for them were not close enough to nature. In
San Francisco a similar enterprise smashed up
on account of the great and costly mortality
among creatures kept in too small tanks and
without sufficient light. The commissions
grotto, on the other hand, has a glass roof. SO
that even sunlight is available. Large aquaria
are used for big fish and everything, from the