The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-05-28
Phi. TK|AS
Of FISHES
Local Aquarium Sheds
Light on Piscine
Ailments.

The tanks at the local Aquarium ar
arranged. as far as possible. in accord
| ance with the natural habitat of thu
inmates Each fish is provided witt
the utmost freedom of motion and eacl
species is imprisoned with surround
ings peculiar to its wild and natura
state.
In this world, among Enthusiastically
shaped pieces of coral and over beds
OF silver sand, numerous varieties OF
many interesting species of Hawaiian
fish, sleep, play, feed and fight before
tn eyes of the spectator
Unlike warm hlooded creatures, wher
fish is wounded it betrays no evil
dences of pain. A chunk may have
been bitten out of the back of fish
leaving an ugly. ragged wound. yet un-
loss the hurt be fatal, the victim viii
continue on its way as if nothing had
happened. A dorsal fin may have beer
bitten off as clean as a whistle. still
the injured fish does not appear to
mind. Tt swims without seeming tic
suffer. progressing drunkenly, unable
to maintain direction, until the fin
grows back again, providing. Of course
that the wound was not struck deep
enough to injure the spine.
These interesting facts the Aquarium
has revealed.
MI
perforce to be somewhat OF a, surgeon;
for fish. like humans, occasionally meet
with accidents.
For instance, new fish when placed
in d tank for the first time swims
about niadly. coming in contact with
the glass of the tank and with other
distractions that are new to him, and
he bruises himself. These hurts some
times develop into assesses requiring
SUI gical treatment
Then the patient is scooped into a
net and held under water while the
managers lancet makes it's incision,
cutting an ample opening. The abscess
is then kneaded gently, the pus exud-
ing and giving relief until, the wound
cleaned, the patient is released, while
the cut mends rapidly and the subject
IS as healthy as ever.
Among the surprising things con-
nected with the study of fish diseases
is the sensitiveness of the skins, or
scales. Indeed, the very lives OF most
fishes depend upon an invisible slime
like film which covers their scales and
which serves them much as the rub
Der suit of diver serves the human
creature venturing beneath water.
Were this slime to be wiped off, the
fish would be dead within three or four
hours, for it is this film which pre-
vents the water from penetrating be-
meath the scales and waterlogging the
fish, as is Illustrated in cases where
the scales themselves sre extensively
If this hurt be Slight, the
wound merely resembles a burn as sus-
tanned by the human skin. But if the
wound is extensive, water will pene-
trate it deeper and, deeper, soaking into
the flesh and eventually reaching the
fish's vitals.
Among other ills to which the fish
at the Aquarium are heir. are the fresh
water and the salt water parasites and
fungi that settle on the scales, eat
irto them and penetrate the flesh of
the victim.
~ large, in oceans and streams. !
ccLl tless fish are lost annually owing
to these scale diseases; but in aquar-
ums the experts have learned to effect
4 simple cure. A fish beset with fresh
water parasites is immersed in a salt
water solution and long before the fish
itself may suffer because of the trans
of it's element, the parasites
have been killed. Saltwater fish in
tested with saltwater parasites and
fungi unable to exist in fresh water
are plunged into fresh water until their
minute enemies are dead.
From the few instances cited it might
appear as if science had conquered
many of the ailments common to the
lenizens of the deep; yet such is by no
means the case.
The manager of the Fisheries will tell
rou that aside from the few troubles !
mentioned, fishes suffer from kidney /
md heart and gill troubles and many |
EXQUISITE exhibits are lost annually in |
LQuariums all over the world because /
have been unable to fathom |
diseases in creatures so radically diff !
erent from the warm-bIooded crea-
ures that ore so much better known.
\ sick fish in eight cases out of ten,
$ a dead fish, and the most merciful
way of relieving him is to knock him
n the head with a stick.