Evening star., 1934-04-20
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

inmates; they are fighters, too, and
that seems to be q sign Of intelligence,
guess; they display . re- interest
in what goes on around them.
II will give yor q small instance of
what I mean by their intelligence.
Please keep in mind that We are
not talking Of intelligent human
beings, who have been to school and
who can read aS well IS talk them
selves into and out Of knowledge
"By the way" continued Jones, "N
we use into as one word why can't
we use 'outof' As one word, too?
you see, human beings can bring
up questions Of that sort any time
they please. Just as they 60 along. but
q flsh cannot, and no doubt he Is to
be congratulated that he cannot.
"A fish In 4 tank Is saved q lot Of
foolishness n this life.
But to get back to why q Cichlid
Is more intelligent than q goldfish.
II suppose you know that pumping
air into an aquarium, by one means
or other, Is q common procedure
among aquarists. If they did not over
crowd their tanks, they would not have
to do 1t, but since most Of them insist
on keeping twice as many fishes in Q
tank Of q given capacity as they
should, they must compensate the ami
mails in some way.
Air Is air. whether it is forced into
the tank by . pump, or by hand. Small
bulbs, with bit of porous stone at the
end of tube. will do the trick, If one
Is willing to take the time. Just q few
puffs won't do. The minimum Is 10
minutes Of continued putting for a
flve-gallon tank, and 20 minutes for
q l0-gallon one. Twice as much Is
desirable. This pumping through as
the Germans call it. literally sweeps
carbon dioxide out Of the water. This
Is its important action, contrary to
popular belief, which believes that
putting oxygen into the water is the
first benefit"
We listened to all this with real
respect, for Templeton Jones Ia one
Of the best informed aquarists in
Washington.
But how about the goldfish and
the big-er@"
"Cichlid. Well, instead of using .
rubber tube, I used one Of glass. After
the pressure on the bulb was released,
the water drove back through the
stone, and crept up the transparent
tube to . point on q level with the
surface Of the ws Ter
Now when the big Cichlid which
recognized my voice saw the advance
Of the water in tht tute, he leaped
at the shine Of it, pl obably convinced
1t was q guppy or some other edible.
Il tried this on him several times.
and for four times he made q dive at
the rising bubble, but after that no
amount Of manipulation would cause
him to seek it. He saw 1t was none OF
his business, and so he let 1t alone
He could not be tempted to attempt
the impossible
But my goldfishes They. too were
lured by the rising bubble But do you
think they had enough sense to give
up the chase? Not theyl
The same thing may be tried out
with the movement to give food. II
you have no food. the Cichlids soon
become aware of 1t, and stop rising to
the bait Of the fingers over the water.
Goldfishes are forever hopeful, because
they haven't got enough intelligence
to know when they are being fooled.
Tropical fishes are brighter in every
way. that is why you may safely be-
lieve most Of the stories that are told
about them. They have brains. those
fellows"