MY AQUARIUM OF BLACK BASS, ETC. 
By GeorGeE KAMPER. 
Four years ago I built for one of the show 
windows of my store an aquarium for keeping 
specimens of the various kinds of fish caught 
in the waters of our county. It is built to fit 
the irregular angles of the window, about as 
follows : 
Scale 1-12. Front sides, ad and dc, are plate glass; back 
‘sides, cd, de and ea, and the bottom, are wood, lined with sheet 
lead. ‘The sides are ten inches high inside and the bottom con- 
tains about eleven square feet surface. Ate the water pipe 
comes over the top, and under pressure from our city water- 
works a steady jet of water is thrown through a very smal] 
nozzle down into the tank. The water stands twelve inches 
deep, making a total of about eighty gallons, and overflows at/, 
four inches below the 
top of the tank, into 
the back tank, gi/. 
‘This back tank fills 
to aseven-inch depth 
and then the water 
passes from the over- 
flow, %, down thro’ 
the cellar into the 
sewer. 
When the fish 
eat there is nec- 
essarily some 
excrement and 
undigested par- 
ticles of food, 
such as minnow 
bones, claws of mie 
crawfish, etc. 7 
This offal tends to befoul the water, and if not 
removed will produce the so-called ‘‘ aquarium 
disease.” To avoid this filth disease I have 
covered the bottom of the tank with small 
rocks and pebbles, between which the sedi- 
ment gathers and remains until I clean it out. 
I clean the tank about once a month during 
the summer season in the following manner: 
I turn the water pipe # to throw the water into 
the back tank at ¢, catch the fish with a land- 
ing net and put them in there also. Then with 
twelve feet of one-inch rubber hose I siphon 
the accumulated filth out of the main tank and 
wash it clean of green slime, etc. Before put- 
ting the fish back I clean them also by holding 
them under the strong jet of inflowing water, 
which cuts the slime from their bodies and 

makes the back tank look like a tub full of soap- 
suds. This cleaning must be done when the 
fish have empty stomachs, otherwise it will 
make them vomit, By these means I have 
succeeded in avoiding the aquarium disease 
among my fish, and they are in a healthy con- 
dition. 
The sketch gives you a fair idea of the size 
and general arrangement of my aquarium, and 
I will now tell you something about its inhab- 
itants, and a few incidental observations. I 
will begin with the statement that, excepting 
one large carp, 
which remained 
only forty-eight 
hours, no fish 
have ever been 
in my aquarium 
that were not 
caught _legiti- 
mately with 
hook and line in 
public water ad- 
jacent to Dan- 
ville. The first 
were put there 
in March, 1887, 
and the suckers 
were put there 
simply to fill up until the bass began to bite. 
About April 25 of the same year I had replaced 
the suckers with twelve small-mouthed black 
bass, weighing from one to three and a halt 
pounds each ; three rock bass or goggle-eyes, 
two bullheads, one small channel catfish and 
one eel. The two largest bass were a female 
very heavy with eggs, weighing three and a 
half pounds, and a male fish a trifle longer but 
more slender, weighing three and a quarter 
pounds. The female had been caught in the 
Vermilion River under the Wabash Railroad 
bridge, and the male in the North Fork, above 
the dam. Near the middle of May I noticed 
that on warm days the male fish would take 
possession of the centre of the tank and com- 
pel all the other fish, except the large female, 
