412 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tank was noticed one day; it continued, and the next day the fish was 

 removed and carefully examined. It was found to have a few parasites 

 upon it, and these were killed. Every fish in that tank was then 

 examined and cleaned, the tank was thoroughly cleansed, and finally 

 the reserve tank from which it came was similarly treated, with the 

 result that no deaths resulted from that cause. 



Besides animal parasites, they are always on the lookout for fungus 

 growths, for some of these would decimate the tanks in short order if 

 they were not destroyed. Fortunately, most of these yield readily to 

 the treatment of a change of water. The salt-water fish is put for a 

 short time in hrackish or fresh water, or vice versa, and the plant is 

 killed before the fish is injured. Sometimes one eye or both will bulge 

 out of its socket, giving rise to what the Aquarium people graphically 

 call 'bung-eye.' This is regularly treated in the hospital tanks and 

 usually with success. Wounds and abrasions, mopishness and other 

 troubles are recognized and treated in aquatic animals quite successfully. 



Fully as exacting as questions of disease are the conditions sur- 

 rounding the matter of feeding. The food must be fresh, much of it 

 needs preparation, and it must be fed at proper intervals. Some fishes 

 require feeding every day, others take it at intervals of three or four 

 •days or a week. The small fishes take their tiny meals of chopped 

 clam every da} r , the larger fishes at varying intervals. 



The dietary is varied, as the following list of some of the foods will 

 show: Quahaugs or hard clams, soft clams, live shrimps, sand fleas, 

 killifish (salt-water minnows), minnows, earthworms, sandworms (both 

 white and red), fresh dead fish from which the bones are removed, 

 salted codfish and beef's liver. Some of these are staples, some are 

 tid-bits to tempt the appetite of moping or sick fishes, and of this latter 

 sort salted codfish is far and away the most tempting. 



Tbe death rate among the inhabitants is surprisingly low; some 

 forms will not endure captivity for any considerable time, as might 

 be expected, but among those kinds that will live and thrive in confine- 

 ment, there are many individuals that were put into the tanks when the 

 Aquarium was opened in 1896. 



The area from which the supply for exhibition is drawn is very 

 large, exceeding, probably, that of any other aquarium in the world, and 

 in this respect the collection in the New York Aquarium differs widely 

 from those of the great aquariums of Europe, which rely upon the 

 fauna of the immediately adjacent waters. The Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 furnishes white whale; the Gulf of Mexico the West Indian seal. The 

 cold streams of Maine supply the salmon, while from Bermuda come 

 the tropical fishes of the West Indies. The great lakes contribute the 

 whitefish and others, while the Mississippi Valley sends the catfish. 

 Tn'sides these, the fishes of the neighboring waters are well represented. 



