Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1900-01-02

iN NuNNlANN
A subject o. constant thought to
those having the care Of lheaquarium
stock, like the aQuariumin New York,
IS as to the mannerin which the fishes
and other creatures are feeding As
general proposition a fish with a
good appetite IS in better health than
one that is shy Of food Every effort
is made to keep up the fishes appe-
sites and to give them what they want
to eat. This often Involves personal
attention 10 individual fishes, such as
fishes in good health but blind. ALL
ing, sensitive or languid fishes are in
duced il possible to eat suitable food
in sufficient quantity to keep up their
strength and bring them into a state
Of health and cOntentment. Itmight
not be that the men who had the vel
fare Of the fishes at heart would feel
toward them, az to their feeding, az
mother does toward her children,
but their feeling would in some re-
spects resembleit.
SO far as the fishes are concerned
there are some atleost that get about
the same care that children would.
Take, for instance, at the aquarium,
that ugly creature, the green moray,
commonly called the sea serpent. The
green moray is seven feet long, plenty
big enough to keep ITSELF, which, how
ever, il practically never does. The
big baby has had it's food put into its
mouth for it since the day il ceme to
the aquarium, now more than four
months ago. But nobody objects TO
leading It in that way; in fact, they
are mighty glad to feed itso, If that's
the way the serpent wants to be fed,
All they ask Of the serpent is that it
will eat in some way. The green
moray is fed mostly on Goldfish and
herring, this food being cut into strips
Of convenient size for it to take into
its mouth and to swallow. A piece
Of this fish is impaled loosely on the
pointed end Of a slender wooden rod,
which is then thrust down under the
surface, the tip with the food upon it
being moved gently about in the wa
ter. II it is hungry it rears its head
and rises to the food with its big, deep
jawed mouth open, and into the open
mouth the food is put, being gently
disengaged from the end Of the stick
upon which it was carried down to it.
The strip may be placed crosswise Of
the moray's jaws and extended a little
on either side, go that it will be less
likely to spill it out, and sometimes
it is placed fairly within the mouth,
resting lengthwiss in the cavity Of
the lower jaw. It is always placed in
the mouth in some way
Then the serpent may swallow it
and eat in succession two, three, half
a dozen pieces;it may be that he
doesn't eat any, that he just holds
that first piece in his mouth a few
seconds or half minutsand then let's
it fall out, to drop on The bottom Of
the tank, While he eats more on some
days than on others, on some days he
eats nothing at all. Sometimes when
he won't eat one hour he will at an
other. On days when he hasn't been
eating well, or perhaps has eaten moth
ing, the last thing done at night, al
ways, by the man upder whose special
care the sea serpent falls. is to go
around and hand him the best piece
Of Goldfish in the aquarium, and to give
him chance Of getting a bite Of some
thing to eat if he wants it.
The size OF the pieces fed to him
has been gradually increased until
those now fed are twice as big as the
pieces fed originally. The serpent
does not apparently note the differ
ence; but now, when he will eat only
one piece, he is really taking in that
as much nutriment as he formerly
took in eating two pieces. This might
seem to some folks like playing it on
the sea serpent just little bit, but il
is done for the serpents good z.