ZOOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 
Published by the New York Zoological Society 
gE XXIV 
VoLuM 
MAY, 
192] NuMBER 38 
FISHES 
MALL fishes have taken so definite a place 
S in the home that a living-room without an 
aquarium is almost as desolate as a fire- 
side without a cat. The aquarium is also a 
popular and valuable adjunct to the sickroom, 
and a boon to the invalid. No human being is 
too young or too old to enjoy it, scarcely a purse 
too poor to buy it. Unlike most animals in cap- 
tivity, fishes do not return their owner’s affec- 
tion, and it is therefore possible to enjoy them 
while they live and refrain from mourning 
when they die. 
One may trace a fairly definite evolution of 
taste in the maintenance of small aquatic ani- 
mals in the home. Some people begin and end 
with goldfishes, while others admire different 
species and maintain more than one aquarium, 
or have a “happy family” tank. As a rule 
people start with turtles or newts, tadpoles, 
snails, and common goldfishes. They next be- 
come enamoured of the fancy goldfishes that 
have been known in the Occident for two or 
three hundred years and were previously bred 
for centuries in China and Japan, just as 
pigeons have been bred in England, by artificial 
selection. They learn to distinguish and wish 
to possess, different types. This stage some- 
times passes into the desire to breed goldfishes, 
resulting in the sale of surplus stock—a pleas- 
ing and not unprofitable avocation. Later the 
beautifully colored and easily bred tropical toy 
fishes win a place in the home, despite their 
minute size. And lastly the enthusiast dis- 
*Acknowledgment is made to Mrs. E. K. Bruce of 
Thorburg, Iowa, for her very kind reviewing of 
the chapter on goldfishes. Mrs. Bruce is one of the 
foremost experts of the world on the care and breed- 
ing of goldfishes, 
IN THE HOME" 
By Iva M. ae 
anf car GR 1094 
MELLEN;: i AY 20 iJZ) 
4 
covers that\he Gee £0 out to thesp 
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Sertingc Up tHe AQuarium 
The most helpful motto in dealing with man 
beast is “Put yourself in his place.” It is 
the very best guide in the care of fishes, also. 
If you have a large fish in a small globe, ask 
yourself how it would seem, after having a lake 
to swim in, to be placed where it was just pos- 
sible to turn around, impossible to swim at all. 
If you think it a good idea to empty the en- 
tire contents of your aquarium daily and re- 
place it with cold water from the faucet, con- 
sider how it would agree with you to be 
instantaneously transferred, without clothing. 
from a temperature of 70 degrees to one of 39 
degrees, and how long you would be likely to 
survive such treatment. 
If it is your impression that a fish needs to 
be fed but once a week, and with dry prepared 
food, reflect how enjoyable it would be to be 
served but one day in seven, and with ground 
shrimp, dried flies, or puppy biscuit as the sole 
item on the bill of fare. But remember also 
that if your exercise is limited, overfeeding is 
rather more dangerous than partial starvation, 
and fishes, like other folks, are subject to fatty 
degeneration. 
“One inch of fish to a gallon of water’ is an 
excellent rule for judging the swimming space 
proper for a goldfish, and in a healthy aquarium 
may occasionally be stretched a little. Tropical 
fishes require less room, and as many as seventy- 
five inch-long fishes can be kept in health and 
comfort in a fifteen-gallon tank. 
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