TROPICAL AQUARIUM FISHES 137 
oxygen from penetrating the dirt or water, the Enchytrae will promptly 
leave the soil, crawl up the sides of the dish and on the underside of the 
glass cover, clinging to same in a variety of entanglements. The cover 
can then be removed and the worms washed or scraped off and fed to the 
fish. This of course is a slow process, but by preparing an hour or so 
before it is desired to obtain same, an ample supply may be procured. 
It is not advisable to feed all of the worms thus obtained as when a 
considerable number are placed in a tank at a single time, some are bound 
to escape from the bunch and, burying themselves in the gravel or sand, 
die and pollute the water. It is said that they can exist under water for 
about forty-eight hours and it has been noted that the larger specimens 
are usually the first to succumb. 
Still another way to remove them from the soil is to take a section 
of blotting paper, placing the earth on it, and in a short time it will be 
noticed that they will have gathered in a ring around the outer edge of the 
soil, free from the dirt. 
