MARINE AQUARIA 139 



varied and wonderfully beautiful vegetation. Wood's Hole is a particu- 

 larly famed point for all sorts of marine naturalists and collectors. How- 

 ever, anybody can go to the beach nearest home and gather material that 

 will well repay for the effort. Two persons in bathing suits operating a 

 seine 4 by 14 feet (see page 112) will be surprisingly successful right 

 in the surf anywhere. As before stated, the little sheltered places, pools 

 around breakwaters, piers and rocks should be thoroughly investigated by 

 hand and net. As with freshwater, let the collector be not too ambitious 

 for numbers. It is better to get a jew good specimens home alive and 

 well than have a bucketful of dead and dying. 



Tropical marine fishes are of dazzling beauty, a fact enthusiastically 

 attested by those visiting any of our large American public aquaria, or 

 by those so fortunate as to travel in Bermuda, or to have seen the beau- 

 tiful marine aquaria at Naples or Hawaii. Most of our tropical speci- 

 mens are collected at Bermuda and at Key West, Florida. The various 

 kinds of kelp and coral fishes make aquarium specimens of such bewitch- 

 ing beauty that any attempted word-description of them would appear 

 extravagant. Anyone wishing to make a collection should employ a local 

 fisherman at the collecting point who knows the haunts and ways of the 

 fishes, and who understands the danger of sudden tropical storms. Such 

 collections should be shipped in a liberal quantity of water and artificially 

 aerated by pump or pouring whenever the train is still for more than 

 fifteen minutes. On shipboard, new water of the proper temperature 

 should be frequently given. 



Stocking the Aquarium. Perhaps we can repeat to advantage that 

 it is better to under- than to over-stock the aquarium. This is particularly 

 true of the marine aquarium, first, because if we spoil the water by dead 

 animals it is some trouble to obtain more, and second, because the animals 

 are used to more oxygen in the wind-tossed ocean than can be had in a 

 crowded aquarium. 



Extra vigilance needs to be exercised when the occupants are first 

 introduced, as some of them may not survive the change. 



It is best to start with some of the more hardy fishes, such as the 

 marine killifish, to see whether the aquarium conditions are in proper 

 working order. It will be time enough to branch out more elaborately 

 after this is proven. 



Anemones and other creatures attached to rocks should, if possible, 

 be placed in the aquarium without detaching. Low forms do better if 

 handled with a dipper or spoon. Whether or not mussels are alive can 

 be determined by tapping lightly on the shell with a small stick. In 

 health the shell will promptly close. Gentle disturbances of the water 

 will show whether anemones and other low forms are living, as they will 



