82 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



trying to bring the ocean into a house on land. The floating labora- 

 tory and hatchery was therefore adopted as a feasible method of 

 circumventing, if not surmounting, many difficulties. 



During the first and second seasons of work, it was clearly demon- 

 strated that the starfish (Asterias forbesii) could be reared in the 

 course of the summer (four months) from the larval stage to over 50 

 millimeters measured from mouth to tip of arm, (nearly twice the 

 length of sexually mature specimens captured in June, the breeding 

 season, and therefore a year old), in cars of appropriate shape floating 

 in the water between the pontoons of the houseboat. In this case, 

 living food was supplied at first in the form of small barnacles which 

 had set on boards, and later, as the starfishes grew larger, clams, 

 oysters, and mussels were given them to eat. The conditions in 

 these cars were completely adequate for the healthy life of these 

 slow-moving animals, and were abnormal only in that the young star- 

 fishes were protected from their enemies (excepting always their 

 cannibal brethren) and were better fed than they often are under 

 natural conditions. In many cases where they were especially well 

 fed they far outstripped in rapidity of growth individuals found along 

 the shore. They throve splendidly and were perfectly healthy. 



This way of raising starfishes may hardly be dignified by the term 

 "method," and yet the better condition of these specimens as com- 

 pared with those usually seen in an aquarium — even in an aquarium 

 where many fishes live for a long time — is a striking fact. It suggests 

 also that there is often something the matter with aquarium water 

 which, whatever the cause, makes it unsuitable for the rearing of very 

 sensitive animals. 



At the floating laboratory, animals with the burrowing habit can 

 also be kept confined and protected and under constant observation 

 by simply putting them into a box of sand suspended in the water. 

 Specimens of the soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria) may in this way be 

 very successfulh^ and rapidly reared, and they give every indication 

 of being in a perfectly normal environment. Indeed, in our experi- 

 ments, when they were kept just under the surface of the water and 



