150 



THE AQUARIUM, JANUARY, 1895. 



was soon also condemned, Germany 

 even going so far about ten years ago 

 as to offer a premium for a successful 

 plan to exterminate it. 



The plant, as we saw it, with the eyes 

 of a fish-culturist, was a beautiful, 

 graceful plant of a brilliant green color, 

 the leaves arranged in sets of threes 

 around smooth, round stems, the latter 

 shooting in all directions, soon form- 

 ing quite a little wilderness in the water. 

 We introduced it in our tanks, and also 

 in our ponds, where it proved itself a very 

 powerful oxygenator and great fish food 

 producer. AV'e used it especially when 

 fixing up hospital tanks, as it seemed 

 to impart new life to sick fish, and 

 when, years ago, the so-called " Lob- 

 ster plague" destroyed nearly every 

 fresh water lobster throughout Ger- 

 many, a calamity through which about 

 1,400 families lost their income, we 

 recommended the planting of anacharis 

 in the infected waters as a remedy. 



In one of the recent numbers of Die 

 Deutsche Fischerei Zeitung we read 

 ** that Dr. Brandes, of the Health Com- 

 mission, has made the discovery that 

 the once so much despised canal pest 

 (Elodea canadensis) is a great water 

 purifier, destroying many injurious 

 microbes, especially those that cause 

 Typhus, Cholera and Malaria. Dr. B. 

 has the plant under observation since 

 1886, and he finds that localities in 

 which dysentery and chills and fever 

 were a standing plague are now, since 

 anacharis has been introduced into the 

 ponds and ditches of these sections, en- 

 tirely free from these diseases. Cuttings 

 of this plant have been sent to Java, 

 S. E. Africa, to the Congo and other 

 sections where malaria abounds, for 

 acclimation, and the results, it is 

 claimed, are already noticeable." 



It seems that the many learned men 



who years ago used to charge the writer 

 with placing entirely too much im- 

 portance into the aquatic flora should 

 be silenced in view of such facts. 



A CARP IN CITY SERVICE. 



One of the supplying pipes of the 

 city water works in a city in Germany 

 needed frequent cleaning of the rapid 

 growing water weeds. Several efforts 

 to give the pipe a thorough cleaning 

 failed, until a man was struck with the 

 capital idea to use a fish to make a 

 connection with the two tanks. A 

 carp was put into a small vessel, and 

 on his dorsal-fin a thin but strong line,, 

 which was varnished, to prevent the 

 water from soaking into it, and thus 

 making it too heavy for the fish, was- 

 fastened. The vessel was now held 

 close to the pipe and the fish entered it. 

 The distance he had to travel was six 

 hundred feet. He had to go straight 

 forward, as his size prevented him him 

 to turn himself around. Several times 

 it was noticed, by the line, that he 

 stopped, but when he had reached the 

 second half of the distance he had to 

 travel the water has a stronger fall, and 

 he did not try to stop any more. He 

 arrived at the other end after two 

 hours, with the line still attached ta 

 his dorsal fin. He was very weak from 

 his work, and easily caught. A stronger 

 rope was now pulled through the pipe, 

 and with this a wire cable was put there 

 stationary, on which brushes can be 

 run through when necessary. The poor 

 carp did not live long enough to be 

 used as the customary Christmas dish,, 

 but had to be killed soon after he had 

 performed his valuable service. 



Did you pay your last year's sub- 

 cription to The Aquarium ? 



