AQUARIUM MANAGEMENT 



15 



the young fall into the water. Young and old must be fed on lettuce 

 leaves. They will quickly ruin aquatic plants. These snails have a 

 general resemblance to the Japanese variety as to size and style, but 

 have a richer, deep brown color and longer, more graceful horns. 

 Altogether it is a very handsome snail. 



They are equipped with an extremely long air-breathing tube, 

 with which they can reach fully two inches to the surface. 



The frog tadpole has been used by many as an aquarium scav- 

 enger, but its value is of considerable doubt. They dash about the 

 aquarium in an aimless manner, keeping the water stirred up and the 

 natural sediment agitated. Furthermore, they soon learn to eat fish 

 food, and, after that step in education, the}' refuse to consume the less 

 desirable particles found in an aquarium occupied by fish. 



Another scavenger is the freshwater mussel. The chief value of. 

 the mussel is to keep down the vegetable growth which causes 

 aquarium water to turn green. Mussels are equipped with a sort of 

 siphon arrangement, by which they suck in water in one opening and 



Fig. 7. Freshw-mer Mussel, Showing Water Int-»lke .\nd Outlet; Also "Foot" 

 With Which It Burrows and Travels 



eject it from another. In the few moments which they hold the water 

 they extract from it the floating vegetable organisms. Two or three 

 mussels should keep a ten-gallon aquarium free of green water. Care 

 should be taken to occasionally see whether the mussels are living, as 

 they decompose very rapiflly and spoil the aquarium water. This can 

 be done by tapping lightly on the shell and seeing whether they 

 respond by closing. 



A curious and useful scavenger is an eel-like fish called the 

 Weatherfish. Varieties are native to Europe and Asia. They are 

 freely imported and inexpensive. When not scouring the aquarium 

 bottom for bits of decomposing matter, they sometimes burrow into 

 the sand, leaving only the head exposed, producing a quaint appear- 



