CHAPTER VI. 



TIIE FISH FOR THE FRESH-WATER AQUARIUM. 



Proper period for introducing Fish— Small Fish preferable to large ones— What Is a 

 Fish?— Gold Carp a native or China— Gold-fish bred In Warm Water— Difference 

 of Color — Minnows frozen In Ice — Deformities of Gold-fish — Feeding— Care 

 required in Feeding— Minnow — Yellow Perch — Niagara Gudgeon — Sticklebacks — 

 Dr. Lankester's Description of them — Sticklebacks not to be placed with other 

 Fish— Mode of Building their Nests— Male Fish taking charge of the Eggs— Tena- 

 city of Life of the Stickleback— New York species— Loach— Cat-fish— Carp- 

 Prussian Carp — Pond Fish— Small Pond Fish— Pigmy Dace— Black-nosed Dace- 

 Eels — Mode of eating Molluscs. 



When our plants are growing, and our scavengers, the 

 snails, doing their work properly; in fact, when they Lave 

 got into order, then is the time to introduce our fish — 

 and not before — or we shall be most likely to lose them. 

 Fish being highly organized creatures, indeed the most 

 highly organized of any that we intend to place in the 

 tank, require that the water should be well aerated be- 

 fore they are introduced ; and to insure this state of 

 things, it is best to let it remain with its plants and 

 mollusca for from three days to a week, and exposed 

 to the sun's direct rays for several hours each day. This 

 cau be done with safety, as the snails will bear a tem- 

 perature that would be uncomfortably high for fish or 

 other tenderer animals. If we have three bright days in 



