The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-20

ly tank. It is occupied by mud puppies,
 red horse dog fish and lamprey cells. 1 All are bottom fish and didn't bestir | themselves until the feed came their way.
 The party then passed to the tanks 1 behind the eastern corridor. Beef was
 thrown to the pike, perch and small
 mouth bass, the crappie, the straw berry bass, the rock bass and the white
 bass. Then the saltwater fish were reached. First came tank given up to
 sea anemones, cicrular genatnous-look ing substances that squat on rocks. They are flat on top until alarmed, and then they roll up into ball. Some are tinted a pretty pink, others dirty 1 brown. MT. Conway tried to drop a piece of clam into the sucker-like mouth of each, but most of them became
 alarmed and rolled themselves up be- fore the delicacy reached them. The
 skate and sting ray thrashed about in the water when clans were thrown to
 them, but didn't try to eat them until they had settled on the bottom They
 are a scavenger fish. The prettily- marked spot, the size of river perch, gobbled up the chopped clans as soon
 as they hit the surface of the water
 The sculpin, which occupy the same
 tank lay on the bottom and waited for
 the food with yawning maws.
 MT. Conway tried to drop a piece of
 meat into the claw of each of the doz-
 en or so blue crabs in one of the tanks.
 But with one or two exceptions the
 cumbersome claws managed to miss the
 morsel and had to search for it among
 the rocks. These blue crabs are the
 ones served for the table. They shed
 their hard shells every now and then,
 becoming the much-lilzed soft-shell ar
 ticle. Live minnows are constantly on
 the bill of fare of the doghead sharks.
 So no dead meat is fed to them. Clans
 were given to the sea trout, the king fish and the cunners. Minnows are also the steady diet of the sea bass.
 An oddly-arranged family is that consisting of the burr fish, which looks like a coffin; a sea robbin, which has yellow wings. and the white-b bellied swell fish, "The swell fish always blows himself up when attacked. Just illustrate, Will,' said MT. Conway, turning to the negro attendant. Will got dip net, fished out a swell fish, which was about the size and build of a small bullhead, turned it on its back and scratched the rough white under surface The little fish immediately swelled up to three times it's normal size Look out, Will, throw it back or it will burst" said MT. Conway Upon being returned to the tank the indig- nant little fish soon shrunk back to it's former size, and darted merrily about
 The daily meal of the fish was ended by the feeding of fresh pike perch to the Holsters. There, none of them will want anything to eat now for twenty four hours," said Mir Conway. Cheap boarders, you think, perhaps? But their lodging costs great deal. Come down stairs and will show you how we keep a constant supply of water in the tanks" Tn the basement of the fisheries building are two big tanks, each containing ten thousand gallons of salt water, brought from the ocean. Besides this amount, four thousand gall ons is distributed among the fish tanks. The salt water is pumped to big tank on the top of the building, and from -here is fed into the fish tanks The outflow from the saltwater fish tanks s carried to filter, which purifies it, and 1t is ready for use again. Connec- ions are arranged so that salt water nay be heated or cooled. All the fresh | water goes through a filter in the base nent before being fed into the fresh fish ahks The filter has capacity of six | y thousand gallons every twentyfour | lours A little machine run by electric | lower congresses the air for use in the | anks Then there is an ice plant for | he cooling of the water. A force of | nen has to be kept on through the | wenty-four hours of the day. for water must be supplied to both kinds of fish | onstantly. Uncle Sam takes good care f his fish.