56 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



errors and misstatements. One re- 

 cently appeared in a Philadelphia 

 newspaper and was extensively copied 

 by others. It stated that the city sup- 

 ply water was so pure that fishes are 

 dying, and goes on to say as follows : 



"The report of the Director of Public 

 Works to the effect that the water supplied 

 to the citizens of Philadelphia is ninety- 

 nine and fifty-five one hundredths pure is 

 verified by those dealers that sell fish — 

 not those who dispose of them to eat, but 

 the dealers who have for sale golden-sided 

 little fellows that are kept in glass jars. 



In filtered water the fancy goldfish found 

 death. Thousands of them died from mere 

 inanition after the completion of the im- 

 mense filtration plant. 



It did not strike the dealers at first that 

 aqua pura was not just the right thing for 

 a fancy fish to swim in. Water is water 

 and logically the purer it is the better. But 

 not for a fish which feeds upon animal mat- 

 ter contained therein. It is well enough to 

 feed a fancy prize winner with flakey fish 

 food if there is enough substance of a fat- 

 tening nature in the water to be absorbed. 



They could not find enough in the remain- 

 ing forty-five one hundredths to keep them 

 going and flopped over by thousands in the 

 stores of the city and died. 



Of course, every one knows that a fish 

 cannot live out of water, but here was an 

 added page to natural history. These fish 

 could not live in the pure unadulterated 

 water which Philadelphia ha° for her citi- 

 zens to drink. 



But there was a serious side to this mat- 

 ter. Actually thousands of fishes died from 

 lack of nourishment until the dealers real- 

 ized that the animal matter and microbes 

 had been filtered from the water. The fishes 

 needed the river dirt and the dealers found 

 it necessary to send down in the Neck and 

 dig dirt from the riverbanks and swamp 

 lands." 



A\ nat reallv is the cause of death 

 of many aquarium fishes is that Dela- 

 ware river water is largely supplied in 

 the city mains, and it is known that a 

 minute quantity of alum is necessary 

 for its coagulation before the mechan- 

 ical sand and gravel filters will yield 

 perfectly clear water. An equally 

 minute quantity of sulphate of copper 

 is also used in the storage basins of 

 many filtering plants, to prevent the 

 excessive growth of algae, that produce 

 a greenish color. These quantities are 

 so small that they have no effect on 

 mankind in the drinking water, but 

 do effect the survival of fishes in 

 the aquarium. 



This is the real cause of recent in- 



creased mortality among aquarium 

 fishes in Philadelphia and not the 

 absurd reason given by the newspaper 

 writer. 



Nutrition carried by the water is so 

 little at any time that the removal of 

 the minute fauna and flora of river 

 water by filtration has no effect what- 

 ever upon the survival of the fishes, 

 while the chemicals used cause the 

 deaths. This has been proven by 

 recent happenings. Aquaria in good 

 condition until refilled with water 

 taken from the mains have been partly 

 or completely depleted of their fishes 

 in a few days. 



The Propagation of Aquarium Fishes. 



The constantly growing demand for 

 the highly developed breeds of Chinese 

 and Japanese goldfishes, as well as the 

 paradise fish, gourami, chanchito, 

 climbing perch, archer perch, fighting 

 fish and other labyrinthine or air- 

 breathing fishes ; and the golden ide, 

 green and golden tench, bitterling, 

 carausche, zebra fish and other beauti- 

 ful indigeneous, exotic and tropical 

 forms, that may be domesticated and 

 kept in household aquaria, has opened 

 a field of industry in the United States 

 which promises profitable returns to 

 the culturist, who, with an understand- 

 ing of needs and requirements and 

 adequate facilities, will devote himself 

 to their propagation. 



There are some few fish breeders 

 who have been successful in rearing 

 the common goldfish on the larger 

 commercial scale, and who also breed 

 the scaled varieties of the Japanese 

 comet and fringetail and Chinese tel- 

 escope goldfishes ; and a number of 

 expert amateurs who have succeeded 

 in breeding the very highly developed 

 transparently-scaled Chinese and Co- 

 rean breeds, from whom they may be 

 purchased at certain seasons ; but there 

 are so few of these, that with the grow- 

 ing demand there is opportunity for 

 larger business enterprise on these 

 lines. 



The present equipment of the com- 

 mercial breeder is a number of basins 

 and tanks in a greenhouse, for the 

 winter storage of brood fishes, and 



