132 



Aquatic ILitt 



maintained between 70 and 75 degrees 

 Fahrenheit. 



All the species of Gambusia are carni- 

 vorous, so living food, such as Enchy- 

 traeids and Daphne should be provided, 

 but if nothing better can be had, raw 

 scraped beefsteak may be used. 



At the present there are few if any 

 specimens of this species in American 

 aquaria, but it shouldn't be hard to ob- 

 tain. Let me urge those who may be for- 

 tunate enough to secure it to avoid sense- 

 less attempts at hybridization. Though 

 a beautiful cross has been secured from 

 Xiphorus helleri and Platypoecilus macu- 

 latus rubra, it does not follow that all 

 attempts will, even if progeny be secured, 

 bring desirable results, and especially as 

 few aquarists seem inclined to make stud- 

 ies sufficiently exhaustive to be considered 

 contributions to science. With reference 

 to indiscriminate crossing, let me point 

 to the numerous mongrels from the vari- 

 ous forms of Platypoecilus maculatus, 

 none as desirable as the parental varieties. 



Insomnia in Goldfish 



Recently in "All Sorts" you sagely ad- 

 vised a correspondent signing "Sam Hill" 

 to add half a pint of laudanum to the 

 water containing his goldfish in order to 

 cure them of sleeplessness. I think this 

 is too much laudanum. 



For many years I have made goldfish a 

 study, and while I usually have the high- 

 est regard for your opinion, I am obliged 

 to disagree with you in this instance. I 

 do not believe in administering lauda- 

 num, even in small quantities, to goldfish 

 suffering from insomnia. If goldfish are 

 given sleeping potions to induce slumber 

 it will not be long until they become dope- 

 fish, and then they will require drugs all 

 the time. 



I once had two goldfish which were 

 troubled with sleeplessness, and I cured 

 them in a very simple manner. 



After mature deliberation, I decided 

 that the reason the goldfish could not 

 sleep was owing to the absence of wave 

 motion in their natural environment. 



To supply this wave motion, I placed 

 two small rockers on the bottom of the 

 bowl, and when the hour arrived when 

 all respectable goldfish ought to be abed 

 and asleep I would take my place beside 

 the bowl and rock it gently, at the same 

 time crooning a soft lullaby. In a few 

 moments the two goldfish would be 

 sound asleep, then I myself would sneak 

 softly upstairs to bed. 



Possibly the reason Sam Hill's gold- 

 fish could not sleep was because they were 

 too cold at nights. I made for each of 

 my goldfish a cunning little nightie out of 

 red flannel, also a nightcap for each one, 

 crochetted from baby blue yarn, with long 

 strings and tassels. When the goldfish 

 were asleep these tassels would float on 

 top of the water. 



When I first put the nighties on the 

 goldfish they tore around the bowl until 

 they made the water fairly boil. You see, 

 not being used to wearing flannel next to 

 their skin, they found it scratchy, but 

 they soon became accustomed to it. 



In the morning all I had to do in order 

 to wake them up was to tug gently on the 

 tassels, whereupon they would open their 

 eyes and swim to the top of the water 

 and lie on the surface, waiting for me to 

 remove their nighties. After that I would 

 give them a good rub-down and then they 

 would be ready for the day's swim. — 

 "Queenie," in The Boston Post. 



When you hear a man boasting that he 

 understands women, you may know that 

 he has never been married. 



Plenty of plants, plenty of water in a 

 big aquarium, and few fishes, means fine, 

 healthy fishes if you meet their demand 

 for living" foods. 



