Evening star., 1934-07-24
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEEELL.

be used. A very little food viii
SO a long way. indeed. Those who
in time come TO look at life from
the standpoint Of their fishes. in so
far as this is humanity possible. viii
believe that FISH. as human being.
prefers to eat more than once a
day. Several small meals do not
load up the stomach, and more nearly
emulate the state Of Nature, in which
the creatures must search all day for
their food. finding little at time.
%E*
Suppose the chef determines upon
two meals a day for his charges.
This means one meal Of minutes
duration In the morning and another
of the same time value in the late
afternoon. But 1t will not do at
all to sprinkle over the surface of
the water the amount of food which
will take them a full minutes to
consume. This would mean that too
much Of 1t would be knocked down.
And then. too. there can be little
doubt that fishes, as men, tend to
become finicky, and resent plethora,
but rather prefer to have their ap-
petites catered to a little at a time.
The best method is to take q very
tiny pinch Of the chosen food be-
tween the thumb and forefinger of
the right hand (out of the palm
of the lefD and distribute it along
the front line Of the tank. The use
Of feeding ring is hokum. as it
prevents the timid feeders from get
ting their share. and concentrates
the food in one spot, causing jostling
of the food particles. one knocking
another down from the top of the
water. much as tenpins do-when one
falls they all fall.
One puts in a pinch well distributed.
the surface feeders dive in, the middle
feeders catch what falls through the
water. and the bottom feeders GO
after the bits which have escaped the
| others.
Suppose 1t takes the fish just one
minute to clean up this pinch.
Then put in another pinch, but do
not be led to increase the size of
the pinch by the enthusiasm of the
| fish.
The idea is to get them to eat all
that is put in, and they will do it
more completely when a little at q
time is put on the water.
! The feeder will soon come to know
just about how many pinches of GER
tain size his fishes will eat in the
given time, but always he must be on
the lookout for either increased or
! decreased appetite, and must vary his
| provisions accordingly.
/ All this may seem a great deal of
| trouble, but those who so regard 1t
are the ones who complain about
cloudy water, and their fishes dying
| from obscure maladies. The Begin
ner must feed by the clock, and If he
does so he will find that it will be-
come instructive with him, after a
! time.
AS to the second point, what to feed,
there are two considerations.
/. Do the fish like it?
2. Does it stay on the surface of
the water?
If the answer is Eyes" to these two
| questions, the person who aspires to
| treat his charges as he would like to
be treated himself, under similar con-
ditions, will stand very good chance
of feeding them properly. provided he
varies the diet. Three or four differ
ent brands Of foods, provided they are
well chosen, will be better than 60, if
poorly chosen.
One must believe that the fishes
ought to have some say in the matter
Under no circumstance keep on feed
ing a food for which they plainly
show dislike. If they do not 60
after it greedily, there is something
lacking in it, or they have been
grossly overfed. And use only foods
of which the majority of the particles
stay on the surface until eaten. The
| other sorts are too hard to handle in
everyday usage.