PETS OF THE AQUARIUM
The aquarium is a very pretty piece of furniture for the lovers of animal life, for a variety of water-living things can be kept in it alike for study and pleasure. Plants are needed of various kinds, to give beauty to the collection and keep the water in a fit state for the fish, for animal life and plant life need to go together. The plant gives off oxygen for the fish to breathe.
There are a number of other small animals kept in the aquarium, such as the tadpole, the water-beetle and several kinds of fresh-water snails. But it is the fish that gives life and action to the parlor pond. Swimming in its little lake, now up, now down, darting nimbly about, with its bright scales glistening in the sun, it is always a pretty and attractive object.
From D. M. Smith's Japanese Gold Fish
The Fantail. The Japanese have had wonderful success in changing the form of the gold fish
A favorite among all cage-fish, if I may so call the pets of the aquarium, is the gold fish, with its bright golden scales, flashing as it darts about. This fish is of Chinese origin and belongs to the carp family. It is apt to vary, not only in color but in its fins and tail, the fins being sometimes double and the tails at times triple. Some of them change till they look very odd, and have long, wide, lace-like tails, strange but pretty. Some of the gold fish lose their color and grow white and are then known as silver fish.
The common carp is not as handsome as its cousin, the gold fish, and is apt to grow too large for the aquarium. Those who choose to keep it may have it all their lives and leave it to those who follow, for it is said to live from one hundred to two hundred years.
There are many other fish well fitted for the aquarium, such as the gudgeon, the roach, the tench, and the perch. But the perch can be kept only while young and small, as it is a fish eater and has an appetite that will soon leave it few of the other fish for company.
One must not forget the minnow among the dwellers in the glass house. This little, lively fellow is well fitted to live in close quarters and no fish does better in the home fish-pond. It is a pretty little thing, with olive back and silvery belly, which sometimes becomes bright red. After a little time the minnow will grow very bold and tame enough to come to the edge of the tank at the sound of a familiar voice and take its morsel of food from between the thumb and finger.
Among the fish kept in the aquarium must be named the stickleback, the nest-builder of the fish tribe. This little fish resembles the bird in building a nest, laying its eggs in it, and watching them with great care until they are hatched out. The stickleback is a pretty little fellow, but, like the perch, not safe to keep among other small fish, as he has the bad habit of feeding on them, so that he soon has the aquarium to himself.
Dr. Lankaster says of him: "He has all the ways of other fishes and many others besides. Look into your tank; see, there is one larger than the rest; he is clothed in a coat of mail like a knight of old, and it is resplendent with purple and gold. He is a male fish and the king of your little shoal. He has important offices to perform. In the course of a few days, if you watch him and are fortunate, you will see this wonderful little fish engaged, in the most useful manner, in building a nest.
"He seizes hold of one little bit of weed, then of another, and carries them all to some safe corner, till at last his nest is built. Having done this, he gently allures his mate to their new-made home. Here she deposits her eggs, and having done this resigns the care of them to our hero of the purple and gold, who watches over them with an anxiety that no male in creation but the male stickleback seems to know. He fans and freshens the water with his fins, and at last, when the young are hatched, watches over their attempts at swimming with the greatest anxiety."