ZOOLOGICAL PARKS AND AQUARIUMS 935 



ing for this work goes on summer and winter. Much of the work in an 

 aquarium is not different from that of the average curator in a large museum 

 of natural history, but we believe the duties of an aquarium curator to be 

 more difficult, as all the exhibits in his department are living, moving 

 creatures, to be catered for according to their special needs. 



The feeding of as large a collection of fishes as that maintained at the 

 New York Aquarium is a matter involving no small amount of labor and 

 expense. The food consists of meat, fish, clams, sliced, chopped or minced 

 as may be necessary to suit the size of the specimens. The whole collection 

 is fed carefully in order that there may not be an unnecessary amount of 

 food left unconsumed, which would have to be removed to prevent its 

 affecting the water. Much of the food used in an aquarium is obtainable 

 in the markets and consists largely of food fishes, such as cod and herring. 

 Preference is naturally given to the cheaper kinds of fish when the supply 

 of such is abundant and when they are of such a character that they can 

 be cut and prepared to advantage. Very little meat is required, but clams 

 are used in great quantities. In addition to such foods as are procured in 

 the markets, a considerable supply of natural live food is brought in from 

 the adjacent bays and shores by the aquarium collector, consisting of 

 minnows, shrimps, mussels, crabs, marine worms, small soft clams and 

 beach fleas or amphipoda. More or less live food is always kept on hand 

 in reserve tanks. In summer when live food is easily obtained, a great deal 

 of it is used, being better for the collection in general, while in winter a 

 large amount of market food is necessarily consumed. 



The interesting little sea horses usually to be found at the aquarium 

 can be kept to good advantage only when they are well supplied with 

 Gammarus, a very minute crustacean secured by gathering along the 

 beaches bunches of fine sea moss, which they inhabit. The sea horses in 

 the tanks are usually seen on the bottom picking this minute life from the 

 algae. Even under the best conditions it is difficult to supply the sea horses 

 with a sufficient variety of the live food required, and specimens have 

 seldom lived longer than a year. It has been found that the longer a sea 

 horse tank can be left without cleaning, the better are the chances for 

 maintaining colonies of Gammarus for its food. Young trout and salmon 

 in the fish hatchery are fed successfully on minced liver, and they are also 

 very fond of herring roe. At the New York Aquarium herring roe has 

 proved to be an excellent food for young whitefish. 



All the fish food from the markets is headed and eviscerated before 

 being cut up, as market fish are frequently kept too long for any part of 

 the viscera to be wholesome. The cost of the market food used at the 

 aquarium averages about $150 a month. The various kinds of live food 



