Photographing Fish 215 



be as near as possible the temperature to which 

 the plant is accustomed. Over-warm water will 

 cause the plant to lose its color and become cov- 

 ered with scum. Never put any plant, stone, or 

 in fact any accessory into the aquarium until you 

 have ascertained that it is free from scum and 

 other foreign matter. 



" Stones, especially those that are rough and 

 honeycombed, require to be scrubbed with a hard 

 brush and sand until they are perfectly clean. 

 Sand, if it is necessary to use it, may be cleaned 

 by throwing a little at a time into a bucketful of 

 water. The part that does not immediately sink 

 should be emptied out. This must be repeated 

 until only the clean, heavy sand remains. But 

 even this should not be used until you have a 

 quiet fish to photograph. A restless fish will 

 disturb the sand, which in sinking will fall on the 

 fish ; so that if he remains still enough to be pho- 

 tographed, he will be covered with a fine deposit 

 of sand, and, needless to say, this will entirely 

 spoil the picture. Occasionally one finds a fish 

 so well behaved that he will allow this deposit to 

 be swept off, staying quiet the meanwhile. Such 

 fish are very rare. A piece of white coral looks 

 so clean that one is tempted to place it in the 

 water without previous washing, and too late we 

 discover our mistake." 



It has been my experience that a good plan 



