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Salt Water Aquaria at Home 
IDA M. MELLEN, Secretary, The New York Aquarium 
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The peculiar beauty and charm of ani- 
mal and plant life in the sea arouses in 
our minds a natural craving to enjoy it 
close at hand. This is a comparatively 
easy feat for residents of the coast, who 
may collect plants and animals for them- 
selves and procure plenty of sea water; 
but for the inland aquarist it is a matter 
requiring more delicate care and closer 
concentration. 
Salt water can be shipped inland from 
the coast with the animals and _ plants. 
Formulas for the preparation of artificial 
sea water have been devised, but we do 
not know of any one who has succeeded 
with them. 
That salts in water are not subject to 
great evaporation, is illustrated by the 
eternal salinity of the seas, whose evap- 
YOUNG TAUTOG OR BLACKFISH 
A hardy and interesting fish for the marine aquarium 
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oration is replenished by water from the 
rivers that constantly flow into them; and 
though they acquire some additional salt 
from the rivers, their loss of that sub- 
stance is so small that the new salt 
acquired really adds to their salinity. It 
is therefore quite practicable to replace 
loss through evaporation in the salt water 
aquarium with fresh water from the fau- 
cet once a week; and a watering can is 
very good for the purpose. 
It is 75 years since the first salt water 
balanced aquarium was established in 
England, and many experimenters have 
been at work in the field since that time ; 
“Read at a meeting of The Chicago 
Aquarium Society. Published by permis- 
sion of The New York Zoological Society, 
with courtesy of use of illustrations. 
