iS 



THE STUDENT'S AQUARIUM. 



shine direct on it, in fact it must be kept away from heat of any 

 description. The fish mentioned in this treatise can stand any 

 amount of cold, but if the water gets any way warm they must 

 die. I have had fish frozen solid in a glass globe, and the 

 globe crack and fall to pieces, and have then taken them in a 

 solid lump of ice, put them in a bucket of water to thaw out, 

 and have then kept them several months in perfect health. 

 Again, I have had by accident fish where the sun shone direct 

 upon them or too close to the stove, and in a very short time 

 they have been live fish no more. Should you find your fish 

 at any time swimming close to the top of the water, in almost 

 a perpendicular position, something is wrong ; hasten and get 

 a common tea cup, dip it in the water and lift it up about 18 

 inches from the top of the tank, and then empty the cup of 

 water into the tank and thus force air into the water ; do this 

 three or four times, and then look for the trouble ; it will gen- 

 erally be found that there is a dead fish, or some food that has 

 been overlooked and has commenced to putrify. Your aquari- 

 um should have a cover, made of fine linen, to keep out the dust. 

 After we have considered something about feeding fish I will 

 tell you what I know about a Marine Aquarium. Big fish eat 

 little fish all the world over, but in the face of this old saying, 

 you will have people tell you your fish in the aquarium can 

 live on nothing or else on the animalculae contained in the 

 water. I tell you it is all nonsense, but I am willing to admit 

 that they can live longer on apparently nothing than anything 

 created that I know of. I myself kept two gold fish eight 

 weeks without feeding them, and they then looked in perfect 

 health although rather thin, but at the expiration of the time 

 mentioned I took pity on them and commenced to feed them. 

 I do not believe I ever saw anything hungry before until I saw 

 those fish eat ; between them, in less than five minutes, they 

 managed to dispose of seventeen worms, and might have still 

 oeen at it if the worms had lasted. My experience with the 



