370 THE AQUABIUM. 



live for months in these globes, if the water is attended to ; so will 

 gold and silver flakes. But beware of the sticklebacks, they are 

 such fellows to fight ; and if they can find no other fish to quarrel 

 with, will fight one another for a brother thinks no more about 

 pitching into a sister stickleback than a spider does about giving 

 * ' pepper" to a fly that comes blundering and buzzing headforemost 

 into his web. No doubt numbers of gold and silver fish die in their 

 glass prisons through a want of water-plants in their globes to throw 

 out oxygen, and that this is the sole reason why they thrive so much 

 better in ponds. Remember, without plants to absorb the poisonous 

 gas thrown off by fishes, and to supply air to the water, nothing can 

 live in an aquarium in health for even the brief space of twenty-four 

 hours. 



