FISH AND SCAVENGERS
Goldfish earn their upkeep—a pinch or two of food a week—by gobbling up mosquito larvae the minute they start wriggling. In pools where the mud at the bottom does not freeze, they’ll winter safely out of doors.
Several kinds of snails, tadpoles, and other scavengers offered by specialists consume impurities in the water, including algae. Frogs are just for fun. They’ll often make themselves at home in a pool without any invitation. A grandpappy bullfrog lived in our tiny sinkpool all last summer, retreating to a dark cave between the rocks when the dogs came down for a drink.
It seemed to me the epitome of modern efficiency when I first learned, as a city-dweller, that full-grown frogs could be bought by mail. That purchase made us the most popular family on the block. But we couldn’t offer them comfortable winter quarters in the city; and the last I saw of the frogs, in early fall, they were hopping down the gutter of Fortieth Avenue toward the sewer drain.