AQUARIUM. 



207 



of the hose around the bottom of the tub, 

 picking up whatever dirt you can see. 

 It is necessary to use great care not to 

 draw in any small fish. Nearly every 

 aquariist in spite of care has at some 

 time drawn a valuable young fish 

 through the hose. This is very apt to 

 be fatal to the fish. 



Q. Have you any other way of keep- 

 ing the aquarium clean ? 



A. There are several helps, all of 

 which should be used. The plant known 

 as willow moss or Fontinalis is very use- 

 ful. This plant seems to collect the dirt 

 in and about itself and can be lifted out 

 and washed off. It can then be returned 

 to the aquarium. Common river mussels 

 are of advantage to introduce into an 

 aquarium. They almost constantly draw 

 in and expel the water, taking out from 

 it as their food the finely suspended or- 

 ganic matter. Then the snails are indis- 

 pensable. The best kinds are the Cape 

 Fear river ramshorn snail, the Japanese 

 snail, and the African snail. 



O. Which snail do you consider the 

 best? 



A. My own experience favors the 

 ramshorn. They clean the sides very 

 closely, will attack dead plant or animal 

 life, and will not injure living plant life. 

 They seem never to stop work. The 

 Japanese snail is also very good, but I 

 do not think they clean quite as closely 

 as the ramshorn and they stay in the 

 sand at certain seasons. 



Q. What seasons are these? 



A. Principally breeding time. The 

 Japanese snail is peculiar in that the eggs 

 are hatched out within the shell of the 

 mother, when they emerge they are quite 

 a fair size, say about as large as a pea. 

 This is quite an advantage because they 

 are too large for the fish to eat. Where 

 snails are hatched out on the plants or 

 sides of the aquarium, they are very 

 small and are quite a delicacy to the fish. 

 The African snail is very active and 

 quite pretty, but very short lived. It is 

 a serious matter having snails die and 

 not know about it. They foul the water 

 very quickly. 



Q. Do you change the water fre- 

 quently? 



A. Xo, I never change it except to 



make up for evaporation and what dirty 

 water is occasionally drawn off. 



Q. What kind of tubs do you prefer? 



A. Old wooden tubs are the best. 

 New wooden tubs should have running 

 water in them for at least a week. They 

 better support the growth of algae or 

 "green moss" as it is called. This puri- 

 fies the water and helps the fish. Paper 

 mache tubs are also very good. 



Q. What plants do you consider to 

 be the best oxygenators? 



A. Sagittaria or Anacharis. Lud- 

 wegia is very popular and looks pretty in 

 an aquarium but is a poor oxygenator, 

 unless very well started. It does best 

 in pots with soil. 



Q. In potting plants what kind of 

 soil do you use? 



A. Any garden soil that is sweet. I 

 fill the pot about four fifths with earth 

 and fill the rest with sand. This keeps 

 the fish from stirring up the earth and 

 making the water muddy. 



O. What do you give the fish as their 

 principal article for food? 



A. For the fish over three months 

 old, boiled oatmeal just as it comes off 

 the breakfast table. To the fish that 

 are hatched the present year, I give so 

 much that it takes nearly all day for them 

 to eat it. If I were home I should prefer 

 giving them two feedings not quite as 

 large, but this is out of the question for 

 most amateurs. It is not just the best 

 thing to have so much food in the water 

 for so long a time. The fish over a year 

 old get just as much as they can eat at 

 one time, that is, they get one good meal 

 a day. The fish under three months of 

 age are fed live daphnia, which I collect 

 in still water ponds at the outskirts of 

 the city, where there is likely to be de- 

 composing vegetable or animal matter. 



O. Do any undesirable insects get col- 

 lected with the daphina? 



A. Yes indeed. That is one of the 

 greatest difficulties we have to contend 

 with. In this vicinity our principal 

 troubles come from what are known as 

 water-boatmen and tiger beetle larvae. 

 The larvae of the dragon fly and other 

 larvae are also fatal to young fish, 

 but I personally have found very few of 

 them in my tanks. 



