58 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
RED RAMSHORN SNAIL AND YOUNG 
The young—greatly enlarged—shows marked difference in 
shape of shell and size of eye and syphon. 
Drawn by Ida M. Mellen 
the surface of the aquarium, is not harmful to 
fishes. Ashes or stumps of cigars or cigarettes 
falling into an aquarium, however, prove 
speedily fatal, a mere scrap of tobacco con- 
taining sufficient nicotine to kill a large num- 
ber of fishes. Valuable specimens are not in- 
frequently lost at exhibitions in this way, and 
hundreds of fry in open troughs are sometimes 
thus killed at the Aquarium—such vandalism 
being no doubt due more to ignorance than 
malice. 
Most fishes should be handled with a net, 
though the smallest fry and also tropical fishes 
of small size are best transferred with cups or 
spoons. 
The principal instruments that one will need, 
therefore, in the management of the home 
aquarium, are a small net, a long stick with a 
broad end covered with felt or cloth, a glass 
siphon, and a feeding stick. For the feeding 
stick a twig, whittled to a point at one end, is 
as good as anything. 
A fish’s gills are for breathing oxygen in the 
water, just as human lungs are for breathing 
oxygen in the air. Gills in the air and lungs 
under water, are in the same sad predicament. 
We have known people to remove their fishes 
from the water to pet them, and then wonder 
why they died. Fishes are not meant to be 
kissed, and caressing is likewise dangerous. 
The less frequently a fish is removed from the 
water, the better for it. 
Special advice on feeding aquarium fishes 
and the care of sick specimens, will be found 
farther on. 
TADPOLES AND SNAILS 
Tadpoles and snails are commonly used in 
the aquarium as scavengers and for the pleasure 
derived from watching them. The tadpole is 
omnivorous and will nibble the fine growth of 
algae off plants, pebbles and glass, and pick up 
such scraps of food, both animal and vegetable, 
as the fishes leave. The tadpole is what alien- 
ists would call a manic-depressive—one subject 
to opposite moods of joy and depression; for 
at one time he appears listless and depressed, 
as though tired waiting to grow legs or wishing 
he could sleep like a butterfly through his 
metamorphosis, and anon dashes madly about 
the aquarium as fast as though he already had 
four good legs to carry him. It is safe to say 
that he is more popular with his owner than 
with his aquatic companions. Fishes do not 
relish being run into by a crazy runaway, and 
snails abhor being butted against. 
One tadpole, therefore, is sufficient for any 
aquarium of from three to fifteen gallons’ 
capacity. It is well to buy the smallest speci- 
men possible in the fall, and by spring it prob- 
ably will have legs and be ready for liberation 
in a pond or lake, where it can procure flies, 
worms, aquatic insects, and other living foods, 
for with the advent of legs it becomes strictly 
carnivorous, and unless live food can be plenti- 
fully supplied, a frog cannot be maintained in 
the home. It is against the law to destroy a 
frog. 
Those who wish to keep a frog, should pro- 
vide it with a terrarium in which it can stay on 
land or take to the water, at will. Small earth- 
worms, mealworms, angleworms, flies, beetles, 
bugs, catterpillars, etc., will be eagerly ac- 
cepted. Some frogs will take a bit of beef or 
liver swung before them on a slim stick. 
Snails are as interesting as any aquatic ani- 
mals, and their life history easy to study. Most 
American pond snails—Physa and Limnaea 
with pointed spirals, the brown ramshorn, the 
minute Ancylus, ete—lay eggs in gelatinous 
masses, and the developing young can be seen 
under magnification. This is true also of the 
European red ramshorn. In most aquatic snails 
hermaphroditism prevails, both sexes being pres- 
ent in each individual and cross-fertilization 
taking place; but our Potomac green snail, like 
the black Japanese snail, is separately sexed 
and brings forth its young alive, and these two 
are the only common species with shells too hard 
from birth for fishes to chew. All other common 
snails form an important item in the natural 
Left: POND SNAIL Right: PHYSA 
Physa is a near relative of the Pond Snail. When held in 
the same position, one shell opens to right and 
the other to the left. 
Drawn by Ida M. Mellen 
