Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-11-08
MoRAYs IN CAPTIVITY.
the Great Green Eels at
Feeding Time.

the Great Green EeIs at
Feeding Time.
!, The intelligence to be found in
.ven the lower orders of animals is
remarkably shown in the case OF the
oig green morays at the New York
Aquarium. says the Sun. These two
great cells from the waters OF Ber-
muda, one of them about five and
| half feet in length, and the other
about i've feet, occupy a single tank.
They are irregular feeders, some
then maybe skipping q day for three
Ior four days and eating some days
more and some days less. But
whether they eat or not the green
morays always come up to the top
of the water at meal time. In nature
these strange creatures, prowling
about in the water around the coral
rocks of Bermuda, seeking what
iprey they could find, were certainly
about as unknowing as any creature
could be of the habits of men, but
here in the aquarium tank they
come, as many of the fishes do. to
know the dinner bell, and unfailingly
they answer it.
Their dinner bell is the wire screen
over their tank-there are screens
over nearly all the tanks-with the
fittings attached to it. When the
man who feeds them comes along he
seizes a cord running through a lit
tie pulley overhead wherewith the
screen can be raised out of the way
At the first touch on that cord the
morays. lying very likely on the bot
tom Of the tank, rear their heads and
get into motion. They can't see the
man, but they know what that
touch on the cord means. As the
screen goes up, outside of and over
the tank, so rise the great cells with
in it, for what they know is coming.
Then when they get there some
times they eat and sometimes they
won't.
Their food, fresh Goldfish cut. into
strips four or five inches long, is
carried down a piece at time on the
end of a long, pointed. stick, to be
| waved about in the water in some
semblance of little fish in motion,
to arouse their appetites,, If that is
necessary. The big cells may follow
. Wills, anu O1O Inet. tclhC ~ OCL"CCA 1to
open jaws, but even then reject it,
not being hungry enough to eat.
Sometimes piece of the fish is left
lying in the cells mouth, which is
easily done, for with a gentle pusl on
the stick the piece may be caught on
the points of the sharp teeth. The
moray may balance that strip of fish
there for moment in its open
mouth, lying across its lower jaw
and then swim on, letting it simply
float off to sink to the bottom. But
the same eel may come with great
gyrations for the next piece put
, down, only to go through just that
same performance. over again.
But now for another day when the
big eels are both hungry, and when
the Goldfish tastes good to them.
Then at the first touch on the screen
they come twisting up through the
water, and the one to which the
first piece is handed down will open
the deep jaws in it's pointed, block
like head and take the fish promptly,
and eren give it a little pull, to free
it from the end of the stick, and
swallow it instantly. sailing off then.
in true sea serpent style. At such
! time it is necessary to look out and
see that each moray gets its allotted
, number of pieces, for. either would
take the others portion if it could
get it. Three good-sized pieces. each
is about all that is allowed to them
at a single feeding.
Then comes what seems the most
remarkable thing about it all. When
The screen iS f1ronned the hiO cole
know perfectly well what it means,
namely, that that's the end of it for
the time, that the meal is over and
they'll get no more now; and they
don't even look for it; but deliber-
ately drop back to where they were
before, at the bottom OF their tank.