The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1901-11-10
NATURE KIND TO THE FISHES.
Injured Fins Repaired Fins Lost Entirely.
However, Not Restored.

What nature an do for fshes In the way
Of repairing injuries Is shown In the case
OF a carp now In the New York Aquarium.
whittier II wal brought two years ago from
the lake In Prospect Park.
This carp, which In sixteen or seventeen
inches long, was placed when first received
in Q tank on the gallery tier on the fresh
water side OF the Aquarium. in company
with some smaller fishes. II didn't like
the tank or the company and soon after
being placed in It the carp jumped out.
Over this tank, as over all the others
along the tier, IL a heavy wire screen, put
there to keep the fishes In and keep rats
out. Jumping up against the screen the
carp pushed IL aside and It had gone all
but clear out OF the tank when the screen
dropped down again and nipped the carp's
tail between it and the iron-bound edge
Of the tank.
The carp finished rs trip 70 the platform,
four feet below the top OF the tank, upon
which IL landed minus a square inch o. It's
tail, torn on when the screen dropped on Il.
The carp's tail II about three inches In
length. The missing piece, comprising
| about one-th'rd OF the area OF the upper
lobe, was torn out 81 the upper extremity
making In that uppe end OF the fsh's tail
n deep, right an gled notch.
III mas now DPtn Tt~tpTFI ~ H'1IlN w hS
original proportions tina. no one not ac-
ouainted with the facts would ever suspect
that II had been curtailed at all. The rays,
or slender spines, that, like the sticks Of
a fan In II. form the framework or skeleton
OF the tail. and tho web or membrane be-
tween them, have slowly grown out again.
gradually filing up this gap In the hsh's
tail and keeping on growing until now that
upper lobe is back into practically Its
original proportions.
MI NhA Ald I'M lnG
out Of the carp's tail seems wonderful,
but nature. as Is here shown, In In fact In
many WAYS beneficent to fishes. Not in
frequently there are received al the
| Aquarium fishes whose fins have been split
the weskhsh being perhaps particularly
A weakfsh comes in. for instance, with
the web or mbra OF its tail nm torn
away from some one 81 the rays 10 which
IL il attached. "a the body OF a fan might
Commonly with the lapse Of time this
In Jury IL repaired here. The web and
the raw grow together again, beginning At
the inner end Of the rent, the healing and
joining e~rt~nding outward toward the
extremity.
LITTLE trout, two or three inches In length.
have bs-n reoai we'd with the dOrral almost
DESTROYED by flngus, the IN 10 nearly gone
thai II seemed at first glance 90 have
gone entirely and ~ though the Nah must
get through ME without a uofsh IN
But N time these trout have come out
Of 4 with dorsal in full feather - 70 speak
Salt watsr baths have nlbsd the ungns and
kind nature has done tie rest.
And ~ u might appear that when .
fsh lnst a m nature would give u another,
hlt IL will not do that u will restore a
m partly lost though oonmgnly not ~ A.
I.st.et q form 40 ths original tut u does
iot repair az injury that ehtsnds bryond
yhef. ti.s rays fan, nor vii H. any more
thap A, wil Ts~tnro losi -oeles. nsproduos
A m thai has fe-u bat eruf.ly