42 



THE 



AQUARIUM 



# 



Sheep Manure as a Cultivator 



By FRANK J. MYERS 



In a past issue of The Aquarium there 

 appeared an article on the advantages 

 of using sheep manure as a cultivator 

 for aquatic plants in the household 

 aquarium. I thereupon decided to do 

 some investigating along this line, as I 

 had always had very poor success with 

 Sagittaria under certain conditions of 

 light. Some years ago I had an eighty 

 gallon aquarium built to fit into a square 

 space containing three windows with 

 western exposure. The dimensions of 

 this aquarium were not what they should 

 have been, the depth being too great in 

 proportion to the width; besides it was 

 subjected to the full glare of the after- 

 noon sun. Plants, with the single ex- 

 ception of Anacharis, never grew well in 

 this aquarium. I tried Sagittaria many 

 times with the same result; they never 

 shot off runners, and gradually died out 

 each time. 



Accordingly, I set up two twelve gal- 

 lon aquaria in the following manner: In 

 No. 1, I placed a layer of sand about 

 one-half inch thick; then over this| I 

 sprinkled a thin layer of pulverized 

 sheep manure, just enough to cover the 

 sand well, then about an inch and one- 

 half of clean sand over all. I planted 

 this aquarium with Sagittaria and placed 

 it in a strong west light, exposed to 

 the afternoon sun, a position identical 

 with that of the unsuccessful large 

 aquarium. 



In aquarium No. 2, I placed two 

 inches of clear sand, planted Sagittaria 

 without adding the sheep manure de- 

 ciding to feed these plants directly by 

 injecting a saturated solution of the 

 manure among the roots, by means of a 

 special syringe consisting of a thin glass 

 tube about fifteen inches long with a 



rubber ball on one end. I filled both 

 aquaria with water at the same time, 

 and injected the aqueous solution among 

 the roots in acjuarium No. 2, three times 

 a week. About the third day, in aquari- 

 um No. 1, I noticed clouds of pulveru- 

 lent, nebulous organizations ascending 

 in thin columns from the sand up to the 

 surface of the water, and there spreading 

 out into cloud-like masses. A micro- 

 scopical examination proved this to be 

 composed of countless myraids of spores 

 of a certain fungus belonging to the 

 Phycomycetes. Let us now digress a bit 

 for a few words about fungi. The Phy- 

 comycetes (Alga-fungi) are so called on 

 account of the fact that they resemble 

 certain Algae more closely than other 

 fungi, and are supposed to have been 

 derived from the Algae, having lost their 

 chlorophyll (sap-green) and power of in- 

 dependent living. 



Saprolegnia, a genus to which our 

 spores in aquarium No. 1 belong, re- 

 semble certain Algae - Vaucheria and 

 Cladophora so closely that connection 

 seems plain. The mycelium (working 

 body) is composed of cccnocytic hyphae 

 (small thread-like filaments which have 

 no partition walls dividing them into 

 cells) the tips of which become swollen 

 and are cut off by septa (partitions). 

 Within these chambers numerous bicilate 

 zoospores (spores with two cilia, which 

 swim about in the water) are formed, 

 which after being motile for a short 

 time, settle down and rapidly form new 

 mycelia. This all strongly suggests Vau- 

 cheria and Cladophora. Now the genus 

 of Saprolegnia which appeared in acjua- 

 rium No. 1 seem to be perfectly harm- 

 less to goldfish in good condition. After 

 a few days these countless spores settled 

 down and formed mycelia on the darker 

 portions of the substratum. 



