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THE 



AQUARIUM 







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COMMENTS 



AND 



Q U JE R I E S 



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An Amateur 



It has afforded the writer the greatest 

 pleasure, and he has read with the keen- 

 est interest, The Aquarium for the 

 month of February, kindly sent him by 

 a friend who was acquainted with his 

 weakness in the matter of goldfish and 

 their breeding. One is apt sometimes to 

 think, especially when somewhat iso- 

 lated, that they are the only ones fol- 

 lowing a certain line of study, and it is 

 always a delightful experience to find 

 that there are others who have made 

 the same field an object of investigation. 

 The information gleaned from the pages 

 of The Aquarium are not only inter- 

 esting and instructive, but exceedingly 

 fascinating to the mind of one engaged 

 in such matters. The goldfish, however, 

 has been the only fish that has been 

 studied by the writer, and most of the 

 little knowledge attained has been by 

 close observation of their habits. The 

 first really instructive matter read upon 

 this subject has been in your magazine, 

 with the exception of a few items which 

 were of little value, in some papers. 

 There were years of stumbling in the 

 dark, and, of course, there is much to 

 be learned and attained to yet. The 

 proper balancing of an acjuarium, both 

 with vegetable and animal life, has af- 

 forded great pleasure, and to produce 

 the proper conditions for the healthful 

 state of the fish has been a source of 

 ever increasing interest. However, it is 

 delightful to learn that all that has been 

 so laboriously studied out has been en 



tered upon in a scientific way, and it is 

 therefore to be supposed that the secrets 

 held by the Japanese and Chinese in the 

 culture of these fish, will before long be 

 fully understood. The construction of 

 small ponds for the raising of these fish 

 and aquatic plants was a field entered 

 upon by the writer without much in- 

 formation or matter to study from, but 

 still, many who have seen these aquari- 

 ums in their beauty in the Summer at 

 his place, have gone away and started 

 up ponds for themselves, with varying 

 success. Water gradening and fish cult- 

 ure, are both, not only interesting and 

 instructive, but afford pleasures not to 

 be found in other kinds of gardening. 

 There has been a great fascination in 

 finding out these things, and now still 

 another field has been opened up in the 

 care of tropical and other fish, which he 

 will hope to follow up. He will, how- 

 ever, despair of going into the matter 

 in the scientific manner in which some 

 of the writers to The Aquarium have 

 attained, but may look on and by study- 

 ing these pages, perhaps obtain a better 

 understanding of things aquatic. 



CHAS. N. TRIVESS. 



Do You Know? 



CHICAGO LOCAL EDITOR. 



For all practical purposes, it is suf- 

 ficiently accurate to say that : 



1 Cubic inch of water weighs .036 lbs. 



1 •■ foot ■' " •■ 62.5 



1 U.vS. gallon" '■ " 8.33 " 



1 cubic foot of water equals 7.48 L'.S. gals. 



1 U. ,S. Gal of water equals 231 cu. inches. 



1728 cu. inches equal 1 cubic foot. 



The pressure produced by a column 

 of water is called the "static head." A 

 head or cokimn (or dcjith) of water I 

 foot high, produces a pressure of ().4)i;i 

 pound per square inch, or approximate- 

 ly 1 pound of i)ressure per every square 

 inch to 'is inches of height or depth. 



