Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/78

them, and you will find little difficulty in keeping it healthy in captivity.

Feed your fish on insects once or twice a week. Do not try to force them to eat; if they are hungry, they need little persuasion. Boat-bugs, whirligig-beetles, and, in fact, almost all the aquatic bugs and beetles, will eat lean, raw meat, if given to them in small bits.

Water-bugs and insects will become almost as tame as the fish, and even dispute with the latter over a dainty piece of food. One of the most amusing sights is a tiny thread-like eel and a pugnacious whirligig-beetle fighting for the possession of a fly. The eel generally comes off victorious: if he succeeds in once getting a good hold of the fly, he will make a corkscrew or spiral of his body, then commence revolving so rapidly as to often throw the whirligig out of the water.

Remember that aquatic animals, like all other creatures, are very variable in their appetites; some are gluttons, some eat sparingly, some prefer animal food, while others live entirely upon vegetable matter. Carp, dace, and such fish will eat bread; bass, pickerel, and gars will not.

Never allow any food to remain in the bottom of the aquarium to spoil, for it will contaminate the water. The The vegetarians in your tank will feed upon the plants growing therein, and they will all eat bread. Most fish will like the prepared food which you can obtain at any aquarium store.

In selecting fish for your aquarium, be careful to have the perch, sun-fish, and bass much smaller than the dace, carp, or gold-fish; otherwise the last-named fish will soon find a resting-place inside the former.

Never put a large frog in an aquarium, for he will devour everything there. A bull-frog that I kept in my studio for