The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-22
IN NEW YoRK'S AQUARIUM.
Where the Keepers Like to See the
 Boarders Have a Good Appetite.

w Hefe the Keepers Like to see the
 Boarders Have a Good Appetite.
 Always after a newly captured fish
 has been put into a tank the first thing
 done is to feed it, or try to get it to eat,
 says the New York sun. At some pe-
 riods of the year some fishes in mature
 may go without food entirely for a
 long time, and in captivity they-might
 do the same, or eat very little; but as a
 general proposition fish that is doing
 well eats well, and there is nothing else l that pleases those who have the care of l captive fishes so much as to see the
 stock with good appetites. That means
 that the fishes are feeling well, to be-
 gin with and their taking food regular
 ly and in sufficient quantities means
 that they are keeping up their strength
 and, so to speak, their spirits. As long
 as fish eats it is all right. The new
 corners are not only tempted with the
 most attractive food that can be SUD- piled to them, but they are actually fed
 by hand; that is, the food is actually put into their mouths and this very likely Is done day after day, and the biggest and clumsiest of the fishes are the ones likeliest to be fed in this man. ner.
 Food was thus offered upon their ar rival and settlement in their tank to the two big western catfshes now in the aquarium: this In the shape of slices of fish carried down to them in the water on the end of stick, and put actually into their mouths in order to induce them to eat; they would not, of their own accord, have picked up food at that time at all The great green moray, otherwise called the jun for sea serpent. seven feet long and with sharp teeth and powerful jaws, which has now been in the aquarium more than six months, has taken almost all it's food in that manner from the be- ginning. It rears it's great head and opens it's jaws, and the food is put into it's mouth. Even then the big moray does not by any means always eat it, but after holding it in it's mouth for one or five or ten seconds time lets it fall. But every day, with untiring patience, food is offered to it.
 Every effort is always made to give the fishes generally what they would like to eat, and their diet is varied as much as possible with marine delica- cies, such as shrimps, soft-shelled clans and so on and it is sought to satisfy the tastes of even individual fishes For example, the green parrot fishes like soft clans. shells and all, and they get them, these beautiful fishes eating the entire clam biting out small chunks and chewing up the pulp and shell very fine and swallowing all; most fishes that eat one sort and another of crustaceans rejecting the shells. But that's the way the green parrots like clans and that's the way the clans are fed to them. On the other hand there are some fish. es that get their soft clans on the salf shell, these being the angel fishes, the cowfishes and the trunkfishes; and as | It has been found that it is better for these fishes health that they should not | eat the tough head of the clam with the | leathery, skinny hood that covers it, that part is cut out before the clans. on | the half-shell, are put into the tanks for them.