No. 5 (1921) MADRAS AQUARIUM 59 



been greatly appreciated. In some respects the fishes are actually 

 seen to better advantage than under daylight conditions ; trouble- 

 some reflections caused by bright sunshine pouring in through 

 doors and ventilators are eliminated, while the flexibility permitted 

 by the use of electric bulbs enables the tanks to be lit from the 

 best possible angle. The fishes show perfect tolerance of this 

 artificial lighting, however brilliant it may be. 



All the fishes exhibited have been obtained in the neighbour- 

 ing sea. Varied as is the collection, it represents but a tithe of the 

 species common in Madras waters. Many, such as the hilsa, 

 sardines and mackerel, are too delicate to stand handling and 

 transport to the tanks. Others are unattractive or too bulky for 

 exhibit and if accommodation is far too scanty to permit of showing 

 all the interesting fishes procurable, practically none is available 

 for the host of lower forms of life that constitute such charming 

 features of public aquaria in Europe. We get in Indian seas 

 gaudily coloured and quaintly fashioned crabs, wonderful spiny 

 lobsters, huge prawns with antennse a couple of feet long, sea- 

 cucumbers in slashed dress of purple and canary yellow, crimson 

 cushion starfishes covered with great knobs, lovely purple sea- 

 urchins armed cap-d-pie with poisonous lances, jelly-fishes and 

 violet siphonophores the hue of the deep sea, pelagic snails 

 ijcuithiiia) kept afloat by a wonderful raft of living bubbles, to say 

 nothing of the myriad forms of coral life found on the reefs at 

 Pamban, Kilakarai and Tuticorin. Scarcely any of these, for want 

 of space, can be shown. No room in the large tanks can be spared 

 even for the Octopus, that most fascinating and devilish-looking 

 product of nature's fanciful marine handicraft. 



DESCRIPTION OF EXHIBITS. 



An aquarium handbook cannot describe the creatures living in 

 the tanks in the precise order of their relationship to one another 

 as found in a text-book of zoology. Of necessity many types are 

 missing, either because they do not occur in Madras seas or 

 because of difficulties in bringing safely to the shore or of main- 

 taining in health when placed in the tanks. Active and delicate 

 fishes of the sardine and mackerel families are particularly diffi- 

 cult to keep alive in captivity. Another source of trouble in 

 placing fishes in their proper order in the tanks lies in the mental 

 and moral attitude of certain species towards their fellows. As 



