Evening star., 1933-02-03

This is SO many fewer fishes than the
| number which the newcomer longs to
cram into his tank, and which, unhap-
PLY, he does often so jam into It, that
he will throw up his hands In horror at
such proposed rule.
We were talking to an enthusiast the
other day. my fishes are dying of one
after another" he bemoaned. What
do you suppose is the matter with
them?"
what size is your tank?"
"Six gallons" he replied.
How many have you got in it?"
''Well," slightly hesitatingly, Il only
have 20 fishes in 1t, and"
Us that alp"
well, I have four weather fishes"
CThese are small stone loaches, eel-like
In appearance, but true fishes, often
used In aquariums as scavengers. Usu-
ally they are about three or four inches
long)
Thus the gentleman had about 40
inches Of fish, in all probability, where
he should have had but dozen or so
In about that number of separate fish
parcels.
How do we get these figures?
How are we SO sure they are right?
The best way in the worldly actual
experience.
We, too, crowded 'em in-and had the
poor creatures die at the rate of one q
day.
Fish keeping was not as easy as 1t
looked. we concluded. There was no
use blaming God Almighty or the deal
ers who bred and sold fishes.
Maybe we didn't know enough. All!
when @ human being makes that mo-
mentous admission, no matter in what
line, he is on the highroad to success.
Ignorance is not only the mother of
evil, but also the cause Of the death of
thousands. and perhaps millions, of
beautiful and interesting little fish
creatures every year the wide world
around.
You can cram 'em In, Of course. but
you can't keep 'em that way. We lost
them, and we know There Is no con-
ceit' in that, but just some experience
Since We began 70 take them out of the
| tank, one by one, until we got the num-
Der down, we have been rewarded with
active, healthy fishes, which make the
aquarium the beautiful picture and the
delightful study which it ought to be.
A six-gallon tank has three angelfish,
two red moons, two pearl danios, one
three-spot gourami and four tadpoles
Four small zebrafish and a gourami are
In q two-gallon tank Four guppies
share a two-quart rectangular jar
Four medakas occupy a similar jar.
Two small shubunkins (calicofish) live
contentedly in one gallon with a full
| "a square inches Of water surface.
It will be seen that these 27 creatures
are living happily In total of 10 GAL
Ions Of water. They would be too many.
however ito say nothing Of being too
diversifie0, for a normal tank of that
size, which would have a total air sur
face area Of about 200 square inches.
Through their occupation Of five
| tanks Of various sizes, with air surfaces
of 128 square inches, "a square inches.
| 80 square inches, 80 square inches and
"a square inches. they possess total OF
1886 square inches Of water surface,
almost twice what they would get In an
average 10-gallon aquarium.
If the total of 1886 is divided by 27
the number of animals, it comes to
l2.44, the number of square inches of
surface per fish, each fish being ap-
proximately an inch long. One need not
be overprecise in these matters. The
point to keep in mind is that you can
not crowd small tropical fishes any more
than you can goldfish.
There is one other essential rule for
the happy keeping of fishes in the
home aquarium, and we hope to discuss
| IL In this column ehorf1v