The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-05
FISH ARE OFTEN EPlcUREAN.
They Differ in Their Tastes, but Are Fas.
tidious About Their Food.

From the Chicago Chronicle.
Many fish that swim the sea are as
particular in their diet as any gourmet
who safes his appetite at one of the
swell restaurants in Chicago's down.
town district. The Goldfish is unsenti-
mental and actually ridiculous. He
is great, gray, ugly fish, and his name
itself is absurd. If there were such
thing as submarine humor he would
figure in it as the goat does in our own
comics The Goldfish has in fact, an
appetite which makes the goats look
pale, and when fishermen cut the fish
open they assert that they often find
such things as scissors, suspender
buckles, horseshoes, potato parers, oil
cans, doorknobs, marlin spikes, corn
cobs and India rubber shoes.
Another startling story told by fish
ermen is that in heavy weather Goldfish
eat stones to ballast them, but it is
more likely that these rocks are taken
in while attached to sea anemones, of
which the Goldfish are very fond. 1t
may be inferred that Goldfish do not
object to nibble the fingers or hands of
human beings, because the wedding
ring of a drowned woman was once
found in a Gods stomach and the find
er got $3.50 reward for its return.
oysters and clans in the shell are
very popular with the Goldfish, and there
are vast heaps of dead shells in the
ocean, "nested" together like straw
berry boxes, which are believed to
have once been in the stomachs of cod
fish. The appettes of these fish are
Unsuitable. They win fill their mouths
with food and still try to get more.
If people knew more about the fish
| they eat it is possible that a slice of
| baked blue might fill many man
with shuddering horror, for the blue
| fish is perhaps the most terrible and
h; ~, oil hn
| tiger has a sweet and cheerful dispo-
sition compared to the bluefish, the
| shark seems a phelgmatic and anna BILE
| creature, and the wolf, by comparison,
| is positively mild. The bluefish make
| menhaden their special prey. When
| school of these fish perceive bluefish
near they swim away with such ter
rife haste that the ocean foams under
them, but the bluefish cannot be dis
| tanced. They rush among the helpless
| menhaden biting, tearing, thrashing
and even throwing them into the air.
They do not stop to swallow their
prey, but kill purely for the love of
slaughter The sea is reddened with
| blood and dotted with dead fish, but
| the bluefish kill on their exhaustion
| stops them or until the menhaden get
| into such shallow water that the blue
fish do not care to follow. Sometimes
these helpless fish are so blind with
| terror that they SWIM ashore ana are
piled up in wind rows foot deep.
The bluefish do not eat one-tenth of
the fish they kill, although when sur
feited they are believed by some peo-
pie to disgOrge their food in order to
take in another meal, 1t is estimated
that during a fair season 100000 blue
fish are caught between New Jersey
and MonOmony, and that about 999,-
100000 remain uncaught. Thirty or
forty are sometimes found in the stom-
ach of one buefish. but it will be
seen that during their four months
yearly stay on the New England coast
they destroy about 1900, 900, 900 900 O0C
fish, and that is excluding the vast
numbers of minute fish eaten by lit
tie bluefish, which are not included In
the estimate, CARVED into avoirdu.
pois it is calculated that $500 OOOO Ot
pounds of fish are eaten daily by blue.
fish, Nevertheless, they are very
handsome and graceful fish. Very lit
tie is known Of their other habits, hui
they are so nervous while in captivity
that they develop corns on their nose!
by trying to push the latter through
the glass sides of their tanks.