Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/77

to grow undisturbed upon three sides of the aquarium; the remaining side is kept clean by rubbing off all vegetable matter once a week with a long-handled bottle-washer. A rag or a piece of sponge, tied upon the end of a stick, will answer the same purpose. This tank has been in a flourishing condition for three years, and the water has been changed only once, and then all the water was removed so that some alteration could be made in the rockery.

But one of the inmates has died since last summer, and that was a bachelor stickleback, who probably received a nip from the pincers of one of the craw-fish. Two of these creatures have their den in the rockery that occupies the centre of the tank. A German carp, from the Washington breeding-ponds, browses all day long upon the mossy surface of the rocks, or roots around the bottom, taking great mouthfuls of sand and then puffing it out again like smoke. A striped dace spends most of his time lying flat upon his stomach on the bottom, or roosting like some subaqueous bird upon branches of the aquatic plants. or on a submerged rock. A big and a little "killie" dart around after the boat-bugs, which they seldom catch; and if they do, they drop them again in great trepidation. A diminutive pond-bass asserts his authority over the larger fish in a most tyrannous manner. An eel lives under the sand in the bottom, and deigns to make his appearance only once in several months, much to the amazement of the other inhabitants, all of whom seem to forget his presence until the smell of a bit of meat brings his long body from his retreat. Numerous little mussels creep along the bottom; periwinkles and snails crawl up and down the sides; caddice-worms cling to the plants, and everything appears perfectly at home and contented.

And why? Because their home is arranged as nearly as possible like their natural haunts, where they were captured. Learn the habits of any creature, and give it a chance to follow