AQUARIUM. 



255 



The other aquatics, previously men- 

 tioned, add beauty and variety to' the 

 plant life of the aquarium, but are in- 

 ferior generators of oxygen, for which 

 reason no dependence can be placed on 

 them to maintain the required balance 

 between plant and animal life. 



An Inquiry as to Fish Ponds. 



Springfield, Ohio. 

 To the "Aquarium" Editor: 



Enclosed please find plot of three 

 ponds. They were built last fall, Octo- 

 ber, 1908. I put from forty to sixty select- 

 ed goldfish in each pond last Novem- 

 ber. The fish were from four to six 

 inches ; one pond fan tails, two ponds 

 comets. I bought your book on "Gold- 

 fish Breeds and Other Aquarium 

 Fishes" through a local bookstore. I 

 enjoyed it and felt that I had a good 

 outfit. I find now that I have no young 

 fish. The ponds are a distance in the 

 country and I did not visit them often ; 

 did not feed beyond a little wafer at 

 each visit, when they did not then 

 seem hungry. I never saw any spawn 

 or young. The breeders have grown 

 to one and one-half times their size 

 last fall. The kingfishes got some of 

 them, but I found no snakes, turtles or 

 crawfish though I did find some frogs 

 in the ponds. Can you explain for 

 me the reasons why I. did not get any 

 young fish and advise me how to cor- 

 rect the trouble before another season 

 or direct me to whom I shall write? 

 Yours respectfully, 



H. N. S. 



Your pond arrangement is good ; 

 shade is beneficial but not imperatively 

 necessary ; the water supply is abun- 

 dant and the selected fishes easily bred. 



Your ponds probably lack sufficient 

 aquatic vegetation ; you feed too little 

 and at too great intervals and have too 

 many breeders in each pond. A better 

 practice would be to turn in four selec- 

 ted females and six males after a con- 

 siderable jungle of aquatic plants has 

 grown. Where there are so many 

 breeding fishes insufficiently fed they 

 will at once eat the spawn or devour 

 the young. Where there is much vege- 

 tation they cannot so easily find these 

 and many will survive, if no other pre- 

 cautions are taken. Feeding at long 



intervals made the fishes ravenously 

 hungry and they ate everything that they 

 could swallow. 



Plant abundant giant anacharis, myrio- 

 phyllum, lilies, potamogeton and, if the 

 climate is moderate in your section, 

 cabomba; principally in shoal water 

 about the edges of the ponds, leaving 

 the centres clear and also part of one 

 side or a corner for a convenient feed- 

 ing place. 



Young fishes require the small crus- 

 taceans of fresh water, daphnia, Cy- 

 clops, cypris, etc., and for the mature 

 fishes a mixture of corn meal, oatmeal 

 and shredded fish boiled a long time 

 and fed either fresh or dried. 



Erect posts about four feet high 



around and between the ponds on 



which fasten muskrat traps to catch 



predatory birds when they alight, and 



patrol the ponds with a shotgun to 



kill frogs, snakes, minks, muskrats, 



etc 



H. T. W. 



Some Aquarium Suggestions. 



Duluth, Minn. 

 To the Editor: 



On reading the interesting and in- 

 structive article on the household 

 aquarium, the recommendation of 

 snails, tadpoles and mussels recalls the 

 classic remark that "If you like that 

 sort of thing, it is just about the sort 

 of thing you would like" — but some 

 don't. The writer frequently has what 

 might be termed a "natural aquarium" 

 containing snails, tadpoles, mussels or 

 crayfish, as well as the smaller deni- 

 zens of local ponds and streams, and 

 finds much pleasure in them ; but when 

 it comes to combining them with gold- 

 fish — not any in mine. And as there 

 are some others similarly minded, the 

 following suggestions are given for 

 their consolation — being intended mere- 

 ly as a supplement to Editor Wolf's 

 valuable instructions, and not in any 

 sense as a criticism. 



The writer has kept goldfish for over 

 15 years, and has had good success — 

 the star of my present collection hav- 

 ing been over 10 years in my posses- 

 sion. Of course I have lost some fish, 

 before and since acquiring that one, 

 but most of them last for a number of 



