The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-22
lAr nm AnrAnLrnrs rAnLn.

CT DeIicacies Not UnknOwn-How the
 Food is Prepared for the Fishes and
 How They are Fed.
 [From the New York Sun,l
 The ordinary bill of fare provided for
 the fishes in the city's aquarium at Cas-
 tie Garden comprises clans, fish, small
 crabs, snails and shrimps. These arti-
 cles of food are furnished each in seve-
 ral varieties and according to the sea-
 son and to the wants of the fishes; and
 the bill of fare is occasionally further
 varied with soft-shell crabs and other
 dainties. These are not bought by the
 city, but are caught by the aquariums
 collector at Gravesend beach, who in
 his daily rounds between high and low
 water gathers in not only whatever
 might De of value as an exhibit, but
 whatever would be good for food. In
 this way many delicacies come to the | aquarium's table.
 The food most in use is clans; almost | all the fishes will eat clams, and they
 are good to fall back on if for any req son other food supplies run out Some
 fishes, sturgeon, for instance, will live wholly on clans. A great advantage of clans as a food is that they can be | got the year round. Of the food sup plies all the clans are bought, as are all the dead fish fed to the fishes and
 to the seals, generally herring. Nearly | everything else is supplied by men in l the employ of the aquarium, who fur nish practically all the live fish, and the | shrimp, killies, crabs, and so on. Fish for the seals are bought of such sizes that they can be fed to them whole, though there may sometimes be among them fish so large that they have to be cut up. The clans are opened and cut up into sizes suitable for the various fishes Some of the larger fish can take whole clam, and prefer to do so; but for most of the | fishes the clans have to be cut into va- rious sizes, down to mincemeat for the | little ones.
 For sharks and such fish live menha- den and herring are placed in the pool The shark will always eat crustacea; it will catch crabs, for instance, and crack them and eat them Many other fish will eat smaller fishes and crusta- cea of one sort and another Most bot tom-feeding fish are scavengers, and will eat dead food as we'll as live. The skate and the dogfish will eat big snails, perhaps an inch and half in diameter, crushing the shells in their mouths and eating the snails. The striped bass here are fed on soft crabs when there are any, and on strips of dead herring and killies and shrimp, which are fed to them alive. The blackfish likes fiddler crabs and other crabs occasionally live killies are fed to the blackfish and sometimes soft crabs. The terrapin are fed mainly on dead fish, but they like Sillies, and can catch them alive, The terrapin will get as near as It can with its head out of sight in it's shell, and then dart out its head and grab the killie.
 The soles are fed on clans and on very small fish. Almost all fish will take 8 marine worm when they come across one. The tomcods like clans, small fish, and shrimps; the sturgeon likes clans, soft, hard and razor The Holsters and the various crabs, when in their native places, pick up fragments left by sharks and bass and dogfish, and so on, in feeding, and they also eat snails and other crustacea, and some times they eat one another At the aquarium the crustaceans are fed mainly on fish and clans.
 The food provided is as nearly as pos sible like that to which the fishes have been accustomed in nature. Occasion ally the fish get tired of their food, just as human beings do, and they reveal that fact plainly enough by turning on 1t and refusing to take it. When some thing else is given to them that they like they go for it ravenously. They like a change, and it Is sought in every way to provide them with the food most agreeable to them, upon which they will thrive.
 The fish are fed once a day, regularly at the same hour in the afternoon. The fish, the game fish especially, be- come accustomed to the hour. The live food is. placed in the pools and tanks and the fish take it naturally. The dead food is thrown into the pools as required. Sometimes the fish don't eat it all, and what they don't eat is taken out again to keep the pool clean. Sometimes a fish that isn't very well and hasn't very brisk appetite will take a clam into it's mouth, press ont the juices and swallow them, and then reject the clam itself, just as one might swallow the juices from an orange and not the pulp The seals never appear to be troubled in this way; their appe- tite apparently is always good.
 It cannot be said that the manners of the fishes are very good at meal time, l even the game fishes, of which polite ness might be expected, if of any, hus- tie with the rest for all they can get. | Feeding the fishes will be one of the | sights of the aquarium.
 The foregoing relates to the larger | fishes and animals of the aquarium, | those Kept in the pools and in the tanks | of the ground tier. To the smaller fish | es and animals of the gallery tier of | wall or circulating tanks, and to those 1 contained in the circular glass tanks, which are self-sustaining, substantial | ly the same food is given; but the meth ods pursued in feeding are to some ex- tent necessarily different The fishes | of the gallery tier being smaller re- quire smaller morsels and more delicate | food. If clans, for instance, are fed to | them they get only the tenderer part. | I. .1 1Gs,., @n f11,I