Amador ledger., 1903-01-09
THE FISH SURGEON.
OPERATIONS WHICH HE PERFORMS
UPON HIS PATIENTS.
Knife and Shears Are Used, and the
Fish May BE Kept Out of Water
From Five to Seven Minutes-How
Medicines Are Administered.

From Five to Seven Minutes-HOw
Medicines Are Administered.
The fish doctor, like the regular doc
tor, gives medicine, performs surgical
operations and superintends his pa
tients' diet and environment. These
are the principal operations which he
| performs: Trimming the f1sh's tail with
fish shears when fungous growths ell
large it; stripping the fish to remove
the eggs or milt that have not been
lance tumOrs lacerated scales and
| splinters of bone.
Among the medicines that the fish
doctor gives ;tfe castor oil for swelling
of the swimming bladder and nuX vom-
lea for debility and emaciation. This
specialist also presides over the food
of the fish, inspects their food troughs
thoroughly and makes microscopic ex-
aminations of their water to see that it
| contains the proper life giving elements
in their due proportions. Regarding
these matters, which are as important
to healthy as to sick fish, the leading
fish doctor of Philadelphia recently
said:
"a food trough of enameled ware
that will not rust should be used for
fish. At the same time each day their
oatmeal should be put in this trough,
which should always be kept in the
same place, and as a consequence of
this treatment the fish will gather
around their trough at mealtime, which
they will instinctively recognize, as
greedily as hogs, burying their noses
in the food when it is set before them
and crowding and pushing one another
in a healthy, ravenous and hoglike
manner. The trough should be cleaned
once a day lest it get sour, but the wa
ter of the fish should rarely be changed.
Even when it becomes foul smelling it
should only be changed gradually-a
quart day, say-for to change it all
at once has the effect of a terrible eX-
posure-is, indeed, the same as If you
should snatch child from its warm
bed and lay it naked out of doors in the
cold night wind and SNOW"
1t is not the detention of fish from
their native element that makes fish
surgery difficult, for they can be kept
out of the water for five, six and sew
en- minutes without the slightest harm
to them, and there is no operation that
requires a longer space of time. But
what makes it difficult is the disincli-
nation of the flesh to heal after it has
been cut. a wound to heal requires to
be dry. Nothing is more deleterious to
it than any sort of moisture, and hence
| the troubles of a fish wound bathed
and soaked in water all the time. In
evitably, therefore, fish operations are
simple and slight.
One of them is the trimming of tails
enlarged to unwieldiness by growths
of fungus. In this work sharp shears,
with blades oddly curved-fish shears
are employed. The fish is lifted from
the water and held head downward
| while its tail is being trimmed. A deX-
| terous operator gets through the work
in two or three minutes There is no
flow of blood and no gaping wound
that will not heal; hence tail trimming
is in nine cases out of ten successful.
| 1t must be resorted to often with jap
anese goldfish, for these costly and
graceful creatures, with their resem-
blance to strange golden flowers, have
tails bigger than their bodies and when
| their tails, as frequently happens, be-
come affected with fungus, they are un-
able to swim well, and sometimes, in
deed, they drown. A fish "drowns"
technically when, floating with its head
out of the water, it dies from asphyxia
tion.
The knife is used on fish to remove
tumors or lacerated scales or splintered
bones, which, unexcised, would cause
the fish's death. Lacerations of the
scales are only treated when they are
so severe that the fish without treat
ment would surely die. This operation
is successful in about 70 per cent of the
cases. The remaining 80 per cent die
because their wounds do not heal.
Stripping is an operation resorted to
when, in the breeding season, the fish,
through some malady or other, does
not deposit naturally its eggs or its
milt The patient in this operation is
right firm pressure is exerted along
its sides from the breast down to the
tail Stripping is the least dangerous
of all the operations in fish surgery.
Admirable results are obtained by
dosing fish with medicines. Castor oil,
for swelling of the swimming bladder,
is remedy that seldom fails. A fish's
| doca Of ctO oil 10 6rOn diIntpd
slightly. The liquid may be admins
tered either with spoon or with a
quill toothpick. The process in each
case is similar. The fish is held in an
erect position, its head well up, and the
drippings from the toothpick Or the
contents of the spoon are directed into
its mouth. Sometimes they flow forth
again through the gills, and in this
event the dose must be repeated.
A swollen swimming bladder is q
frequent and dangerous ailment Of
captive fish. Under it they become ex-
tremely corpulent and unwieldy. At
length they turn over and float on their
backs. Finally they die. But in nine
cases out of ten one dose of castor oil
cures this disease in day. Fish often
lose appetites, become thin and weak
and apathetic. Their trouble then is
stomachic, and nuX vomica, with them
as with human beings, affords quick
relief A drop of dilute nux vomica
will bring back a fish's appetite, re-
store its weight and make it active and
cheerful-New York Tribune.