The morning call., 1893-04-30

them insufficient it Is n good hint to the
people occupying the rooms TO get more air
Ii is not bad thing TO notice how con-
tented hSh resemble contented men. Put
two goldfish into a twO-galIOn aquarium.
Everything is love and peace. Two gold
hsh not over four inches long can live in
this space. Four gallons of water will
support four goldfish: six Will support six.
Dead and decaye1 matter will reduce the
vital sup ly. Feed crumbs and stale bread,
aud overfeed the fish generally, the result
is mortality. Keep the feeding down below
par and the fish are hungry and healthy.
No fish can be kept in an aquarium alive
and healthy which will not rush to the top
of the water for food. That is the test. A
fish which rushes TO the surface for food is
healthy; If it does not rush there for food
it is sicky.
By all odds the carp family are the
aquarium fish. Trout soon die. All salt
water fish die in aQuarlumS, however care
fully kept, for the reason aforesaid that
there are no purifying tides. The swifter
the waters in which fish naturally live TIE
swifter their deaths in an aquarium. For
this reason the slOw-mOyng cyprn!de or
carp family do well.
Goldfish belong to this family and are
slow movers; hence they thrive. Pike aud
trout are swift swimmers and swiftly die
Catfish do well, but the perch family are
speedy victims. Suckers endure, but the
salmoGidR die out That is the way in this
world. Those whom the gods love die
young.
Confervae are a great trouble in aquar-
lulnS. Ihey are green growth like moss
settling on the sides of the jar. If the fish
are 10 live the eonferva must be cleaned out.
While this Is being done-and it will be
noticed that the confeTvI are always on the
sunny sde-the fish should be lifted by a
net, never by the hand, and placed in jar
of fresh water. II the water is too cold
make it warmer if warm make il colder,
IA fTch mi
change of temperature.
Fish In an aquarium should never be fed
under any circumstances Every waste
crumb of bread represents chance of
disease. Every diseased fish should be re-
moved before 1t dies and the water be
changed. Diseased fish never get better.
The whole secretOf 4 successful aquarium
IS the secret of a merchants success in
business-a just balance between debtor
and creditor. In an aquarium oxygen is
the creditor, used air, or carOOnc acid, is
the debtor. Green weeds are out of place
in an aquarium unless they are naturally
growing in sunlight If there are more
green weeds than there is green support
the evil is as greata If there were no green
stuff at all. The object of the weed is to
separate the oxygen from the water by the
aid of sunlight The fish use this nascent
oxygen and thrive on it. Without this oxy-
gen the death of the fish is a mere question
OF time, but no amount OF green weed will
supply the oxygen without sunlight.
As for fish, as for humanity. any temper
allure above 50 degrees Fair is too high.
any below IS degrees is too low.
The proper thing for the bot ON of an
aquarium ia two inches of sand with top
layer of pebbles, in which to insert the
plants for growth.
II is always to be remembered that in a
well-ventilated room, where the carbon and
oxygen are we'll balanced, men, women and
children will thrive and fish Will live. Hence
1t follows that in apartments where people
grow cOnsumptive fish will die, and that in
rooms where fish remain quietly and con-
tentedly at the bottom of the jar human
beings are doing well.
German carp and catfish do well in squar-
iums. The three-tailed Japanese goldfish
will also do well, but the other river fishes
are best left alone.
Fish which are devourers of their kind
however iong-liVed in state of liberty, die
swiftly in the aquarium. The perch, bass
and pike are examples. The greater the
amount OF original liberty the more rapid
the growth Of the saprolegnia ferax, which
Is the bane of aquariums. p. c. D.