THE FRESHWATER AQ UARIUM AND ITS MAINTENANCE 



Food. The natural food of the goldfish consists of the minute pro- 

 tozoans and crustaceans, algae, insects, larvae and worms contained in all 

 freshwater. In the artificial conditions of domestication and in the 

 aquarium, however, an insufficient amount of this food is obtainable, 

 making feeding necessary ; the best results being obtained when this 

 natural food can be given to them ; but in lieu thereof, artificial food may 

 be fed, care being taken to feed in moderation, excess being more danger- 

 ous than a slight insufficiency. Not more should be given than will be 

 immediately consumed, and if any remains uneaten, it should either be re- 

 moved with the lifting-tube or no mpre given until it has been consumed. 

 Animals under domestication thrive best when sparingly fed, and this 

 also applies to goldfishes and other aquarium pets. The appetite of 

 fishes is greatest in warm weather, as they become sluggish when the water 

 is cold, and in their natural state take little or no food ; which should be 

 considered, and their diet regulated in keeping with their natural require- 

 ments. 



During warm weather they should be fed once each day, but when 

 the water has become cold, only on alternate days, or a smaller quantity 

 given daily with occasional days of abstenence, that they may seek the 

 discarded particles of previous feedings and prevent its becoming sour, with 

 the attendant objectionable results. 



For the novice, the most readily obtainable and least harmful fish 

 food is the generally used rice wafer. Of this a piece about ^ inch 

 square should be fed to each 3 inch fish in summer and a smaller quantity 

 in winter, varied at intervals of a week with other approved prepared gold- 

 fish foods or small particles of cleansed earthworms or ant larvae, and 

 when these can not be obtained with very small pellets of raw scraped 

 beef, each fish receiving but one piece and care taken that none remains 

 uneaten. Bread, cake and similar substances are not proper food for 

 aquarium fishes. 



Salts. In an aquarium holding say five gallons of water, a half tea- 

 spoonful of table salt or a smaller quantity of epsom or glauber salts 

 should be put about once a fortnight. It is beneficial to the fishes, who 

 take it ravenously, as they have the same craving for saline substances as 

 other animals. The table salt is both a mild antiseptic and a cathartic, 

 and the other salts, cathartics, which are necessary to the fishes in their 

 artificial surroundings, confinenient, and the concentrated and highly 

 nutritious forms of their food. Some of the prepared foods contain these 

 salts, but their addition to the water in moderate quantity is always bene- 

 ficial. 



