Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-11
FISHES AS PETS.
RARE SPECIMENS MAY BE SEEN IN
NEW YORK AQUARluMS.


breeding Purposes-How Ono Society
Woman Has Sea Aquarium Arranged
in Her Drawing Room.
Lovers OF household pets who find de-
hight in rare fishes of beautiful color nnd
form are rapidly increasing in number.
During the last year the salt water aqua
rum has been more in demand in this city
and in different parts of the country than
ever before. 1t has been found to be as
easy to make this kind of aquarium self
sustaining-that is, arrange it so that u
change of water or artificial aeratiop is
unnecessary--as fresh water aquarium.
An advantageous feature of the marine
aquarium also is that a great number of
interesting specimens can be accommo-
dated in very small space, and can be
kept successfully for q number of years
without requiring much attention. More
over, the specimens in marine aquarium
are less common than those usually found
in the ordinary fresh water aquarium.
A well known society woman who lives
on Fifth avenue, near Fifty-ninth street,
has recently kept small imported glass
vessel on little table in her drawing room
near the window, which has attracted con-
siderable attention on account of the beau
tiful groupings and great variety of grow
ing seaweeds therein, and because of the
display of fine specimens of sea urchins-
those curious looking members of the fam
lily of radiates, with spines sticking out all
over their bodies, something like the hedge
hog. This lady has taken a great deal of
pleasure in collecting living anemones all
along thecoast, and she has brown, yellow.
red, white and salmon colored varieties.
On several occasions she has entertained
callers by feeding her pets with small
shrimps and the tiny white crab that is
found inside the oyster she'll.
After eating one of these little crusta-
ceans the anemone would rise up to almost
twice it's normal length and display it's fine
array of tentacles. with which it's food is
grasped to be carried to the sac which serves
as a stomach. Some of the anemones in
the aquarium reproduced, and one point of
the rockwork on one side of, the tank was
recently literally covered with tiny specks
of various colors, and these were the spawn
of the anemones.
But the specimen in her collection which
this lady has taken the most pride in has
been an oddly formed piece of living coral
which she obtained off the coast of Massa-
chusetts. 1t has become so acclmated and
accustomed to the artificial method of feed
ing which she has employed that the tiny
polyps come forth to be fed when she agi-
tates the water in the vicinity of their
homes.
Mrs. Burke -Roche's two little boys have
two fine specimens of the Chinese nymph,
which has peculiarly dwarfed body, hand
somely marked red and white, and fins of
an abnormal size
Thomas Arnold has pair of very small
fringed tail goldfish half an inch long, of
which fully one-quarter is caudal fin, wide
ly divided with four nukes. These fishes
are the young of a very expensive pair of
Japanese fringe tails imported and raised
in New York. The little mites are now
worth twenty dollars, but when they at
tain an adult size their value for breeding
purposes will be over 500. Both fish would
easily go into an ordinary vial. Their tails
are SO heavy that they can hardly swim in
horizontal position. They are unusually
intelligent, even for goldfish, but that is
because they were raised from special stock
by the Japanese from one generation to an
other. The parents Of these fishes attract
considerable attention on account Of the
exceeding fineness and great length Of their
tails. The sum of $500 was recently offered
refused.
1t is very difficult to breed this class of
fish and produce specimens perfect in form,
fin and color. For this reason the jap
anese have obtained very high prices for
representative specimens Among those
bred by Mark Samuel have been noticed
many with the dorsal fin foreshortened
and sometimes missing, which gives the
fish very unusual appearance and pre-
vents it's steadying itself in swimming.
Some of these fish are without any anal
fin, making the tail appear as though it
were attached to the body by some artif-
cial means.
One specimen out of about twenty-five
raised in one tank was Matched with only
one eye, and it is remarkable how alert he
is about dinner time every day, and how he
holds his own among his little brothers
and sisters.
1t is not generally known that goldfish
spawn tiny yellow eggs about the size of
a pinhead, which are glutinous and attach
themselves to the water plants in the
aquarium, where they hatch in from three
to eight days, according to the tempera-
ture and condition of the water. The lit
tie fish when first Matched are placed in
small jars operated on the self sustaining
principle and put where they will get the
early morning sun. After the yoik sac,
from which they obtain nourishment soon
after Matching, has been absorbed, they
are fed with particles of beef liver, raw
beef and wafer prepared fish food. Tiny
crustacea, such as the water flea, water
shrimp, cyclops, ETC., which are taken from
small feeding reservoir" in a dip tube, !"
are also dropped in the water near the fish.
William H. Hays has u valuable speci-
men of the Chinese comet goldfish, which
he obtained year and a half ago. During
that time it has developed into an ideal
specimen of it's kind. The spread of caudal
fin from tip to tip is nearly five inches in
length, with the flukes deeply divided.
This fish requires considerable space when
| swimming, and presents somewhat the ap
pearance of a creature moving through the
water with the aid of large sails. All the
other fish in the aquarium are afraid of ii
for some reason or other, except a male
macropodon from India, curiously
marked fish, which apparently does not
fear anything that swims. The comet, fish
mentioned is now worth twenty-fv dol
lars.-New York Times.
! How IT Seemed tn the Row.