ZOOLOGICAL. SOCIETY BULLETIN 63 
THE COMMON FOOD OF BABY FISHES (MICROSCOPIC) 
1 and 2 are Rotifers, 3 to 7 are Infusoria known as Slipper, Bell, Sun, Mussel and Barrel Animalcules. 
Drawn by Ida M. Mellen. 
Beginning at left: 
when they must be removed into clear water 
of the same or a slightly warmer temperature. 
Six Weexs tro Turee Montrus Op 
If carried safely through the first six weeks, 
baby goldfishes may be permitted a variety of 
foods, such as small crustaceans and mosquito 
larvae. If these are collected in open ponds, 
it is best to strain them through a fine sieve, to 
avoid placing in the tanks young water beetles, 
fresh-water polypes (hydra), leeches, or 
dragon-fly larvae, which prey upon young 
fishes. 
Strained boiled oatmeal and egg-yolk may be 
continued until the fishes are large enough to 
eat the oatmeal itself, which may be fed either 
cooked or ground raw. 
Puppy biscuit and cereals of all sorts, vermi- 
celli, and dry bread crumbs, all ground to a 
powder, dried codfish, and the common prepared 
fishfoods of dried shrimp, ant eggs, etc., may 
be fed. Chopped meal worms and earthworms 
are favorite foods. Very finely scraped raw 
beef or boiled fish may also be used. 
At six weeks it is safe to place the fry in tubs 
out of doors. Sorting and the rejection of poor 
specimens may continue to be necessary, and the 
swimming space allotted the young fishes is now 
of almost equal importance with the food given 
them. Two or three six-weeks-old specimens 
for every gallon of water is a good rule, in- 
creasing the swimming space as they grow, so 
that fishes one inch long shall haye about a 
gallon of water apiece. 
The number of feedings should be gradually 
decreased so that at the end ot three months 
there shall be but one meal a day. Goldfishes 
are always greedy and adult specimens in cap- 
tivity will overeat and, lacking the exercise that 
wild specimens have, develop indigestion, fatty 
degeneration, and other sicknesses, if care is 
not taken, 
At four months the young fishes should be 
well formed, and the breeder will need no fur- 
ther advice on feeding, except a word as to 
common foods for adult goldfish. 
Aputts, Tuer Foop, erc. 
Adult goldfishes should be fed daily, or six 
days a week, and it is entirely possible to give 
them something different each day of the six. 
To a goldfish, variety is as much the spice of 
life as it is to other folks. Scraped raw beef, 
raw fish, oyster, mussel or clam, chopped meal- 
worms or earthworms, small crustaceans, mos- 
quito larvae and the red water-worm Tubifex 
where procurable, toasted breadcrumbs, boiled 
or baked white potato, cereals powdered raw or 
cooked, yolks of hard boiled eggs, ant eggs, 
boiled roe of marine fishes, dog biscuit ground 
in a coftee mill, finely crushed or boiled vermi- 
celli, and the prepared fish foods—all are 
wholesome and much relished. A goldfish, like 
a cat lapping a saucer of milk, likes to rest when 
half-way through the meal. Its teeth are in its 
throat, and it will be observed to chew its food 
thoroughly before swallowing. Sometimes it 
takes so much that one feels sure there is a re- 
serve supply held in the mouth while the teeth 
are working on the first morsel taken. After one 
mouthful is disposed of, a second is greedily 
sought and the fish works industriously, literal- 
ly standing on its head to gather up such foods 
as falls to the bottom of the tank. 
The Japanese, feeding goldfishes in open 
ponds, sink food in porcelain dishes to prevent 
contamination of the water, one-half foot below 
the surface for adult fishes, and about two inches 
below for larval fishes. 
