with feeble swimming powers and delicate constitution can be transported only with the greatest 

 difficulty, and even with extreme care all or a large part of a consignment usually succumbs to long- 

 distance travel. Hence some of the most interesting varieties have not yet become known outside of 

 their oriental environment. 



Prior to shipment goldfish, whether young or old, should be transferred to tubs, tanks, or small 

 cement ponds with pure water and kept there without food for several days. This is to ensure the 

 throwing off of all ingested matter throughout the alimentary canal. If fish are shipped with food 

 in them, they are likely to die either because they will pollute the limited amount of water in which 

 they are preferably carried or because the food will undergo decomposition in the intestines as a resvilt 

 of lowered metabolism. 



The Japanese have learned by experience to use only a limited quantity of water in moving gold- 

 fish. It is a very important and suggestive fact that during either long or short shipments goldfish 

 require only a very small amount of water, and the best results are obtained with the minimum 

 quantity necessary to keep the skin and gills constantly moist. The writer has seen more than a 

 thousand year-old fish carried by a man in two wooden tubs suspended from a shoulder bar, and this 

 too in summer and for half a mile under a broiling sun. Notwithstanding there was not enough 

 water to cover the fish, they were delivered without any loss whatever. Under the same conditions 

 there \vould have been large mortality had an attempt been made to provide enough water to isolate 

 each fish. The explanation is simple : The shallow tubs permitted the absorption of much oxygen 

 from the air, and the absorption was increased by the squirming movements of the fish induced by 

 the lack of water, the result being a plentiful supply of oxygen available for respiration while their 

 gills and bodies were thoroughly moist — two requisites for existence. 



80 



