Aquafortis

“ Fishes alone are well worthy of close observation; and when to these are added odd little reptiles, queer shell-fish, and different classes of the wonderful zoophytes, an aquarium presents a constantly changing picture of the marvels of ocean life.
The zoophytes are the most remarkable of all marine creatures. The name zoophyte comes from two Greek words—zoön, an animal, and phyton, a plant—and therefore has the literal signification of animal-plant.
An important member of the zoophyte family, and one often introduced into aquaria, is the actinia, or sea-anemone, sometimes called sea-rose. ”

“ In the engraving placed at the commencement of this chapter, I have represented a Fountain-Aquarium, a form of the invention particularly suitable for a conservatory or hall. It needs but a vessel fixed, as a reservoir, at some distance above the level of the Tank, in a higher story for example, whence a supplying tube may descend, and passing beneath the floor, ascend through the foot of the vase, to the surface of the water. All the visible portion may be easily concealed among the rock-work ”

“ The bottom of the aquarium should be covered with a layer of sand from one to two inches thick, upon the top of which should be placed a few pebbles, in patches. For marine aquaria, the sand must be procured from the sea-beach, or a river-side, below the tide-mark, and, for those of fresh water, from the bed of a brook or running stream, and, in either case, it must be thoroughly washed, to free it from impurities. Rock-work may be built upon the sand, to form caves and grottoes, but there should not be any hiding-places for impurities to collect in. ”

“ Another point deserving of note is, that marine aquaria need a less depth of water than river collections:—For purposes of study, a number of glass dishes or milk-pans, will be found preferable to any kind of tank, or vase, especially for Zoophytes, though fishes and crustaceans require more room than mere bowls would afford them. In fact, the lower forms of marine life may be kept for many months without the help of sea weeds, if placed in shallow vessels—the absorption of oxygen, at the surface, being quite equal to their demand upon the water. ”

“ THE VEGETATION OF THE MARINE AQUARIUM. As the forest must be planted before its denizens can luxuriate in its shades, so the submarine shrubbery of the Aquarium must be perfected before the aquatic animals can be introduced. For it has been shown, in tracing the history of the experiments which resulted in the establishment of the principles that regulate the formation of Aquaria, that it is by plants only that a supply of oxygen can be kept up, sufficient for the health and existence of all forms of animal life beneath the water. ”

“ Thus the real Aquarium is a water-garden and a menagerie combined,—and aims to show life beneath the waters, both animal and vegetable, in all the domestic security of its native home, and in all the beauty, harmony, and nice adaptation of Nature herself. It is no sudden discovery, but the growth of a long and patient research by naturalists.
"What happens, when we put half a dozen gold-fish into a globe? The fishes gulp in water and expel it at the gills. As it passes through the gills, whatever free oxygen the water contains is absorbed, and carbonic acid given off in its place ”

“ Among the fish mentioned by the most experienced in the keeping of Sea Aquaria as best suited to that purpose, the first is the pretty little Tansy, Blennius pholis, with its bright scarlet eyes, and the many changing hues of its body. This little fellow will live and flourish in a tank with a poorer supply of oxygen than any other fish yet tried. ”

“ An aquarium, even on the largest scale, and with every appliance that science can suggest, only represents, after all, a few of the conditions which actually exist in nature; but in small vessels, with a limited quantity of water, without the continual motion of the liquid, which belongs naturally to seas and streams, and with circumstances of light and temperature widely different from those which are obtained in nature, it is not surprising that the success of domestic aquaria should be but very partial, and that the taste for them should have declined accordingly. ”

“ I believe it is the absence or deficient supply of Infusoria that sometimes so tantalizingly defeats the attempts of many persons to establish an aquarium. Pure deep-sea water, although never without them, often contains but very few, hence great caution is necessary not to overstock the tank filled with it, otherwise the animals will die rapidly, although the water itself appears beautifully transparent.
Of Infusoria there are many species. They are nearly all, at one stage or other of their existence, extremely vivacious in their movements ”

“ In the course of his essay Ingenhauss states, still more directly, that plants “immersed in water,” when exposed to the action of light, emit an air which he announces as oxygen gas; and this idea is the key-stone of the Aquarium.
But, although the discovery of Ingenhauss at once rendered the thing practicable, Aquaria did not then come into fashion. The science of natural history was not at that time sufficiently advanced; for the specimens, even in public museums, were merely heterogeneous collections, assembled without the slightest regard to classification, or any other useful purpose. ”

“ The beautiful Actiniæ, indeed, will exist in apparent health for a considerable time in water in which no vegetable growth has been introduced. Mr. Gosse describes 96instances in which the water in glass Aquaria, containing Sea-Anemonies, has remained perfectly pure for more than a year.
The addition of fish, however, undoubtedly enlivens the general aspect of an Aquarium very considerably; and many may not grudge the task of daily aerating the water, in order to enjoy the cheerful spectacle of their agreeable and ever-active movements. ”

“ When irritated, the creature has the power of attaching the tentacles to the object which annoys it, and in this way it frequently clings to the fingers when handled, and at the same time squirts out numerous jets of water, until it is quite empty and collapsed.
Actinia Parasitica.—This is a good aquarium species, on account of the ease with which it may be kept. It is a species that the rambler on the sea-beach will not be at all likely to meet with, for it is truly pelagic in its habit. ”

“ These cuttlefish in the Aquarium were nothing more than the seaside inhabitants of the Mediterranean coast,—poor relations of the gigantic octopus that lighten the black gloom of the oceanic night with their bluish gleam of burned-out planets. But in spite of their relative smallness, they are animated by the same destructive iniquity as the others. They are rabid stomachs that cleanse the waters of all animal life, digesting it in a vacuum of death. Even the bacteria and infusoria appear to flee from the liquid that envelops these ferocious solitudes. ”

“ A prawn or two, and a few minute star-fish, will make your aquarium complete; though you may add to it endlessly, as one glance at the salt-water tanks of the Zoological Gardens, and the strange and beautiful forms which they contain, will prove to you sufficiently.
You have two more enemies to guard against, dust, and heat. If the surface of the water becomes clogged with dust, the communication between it and the life-giving oxygen of the air is cut off ”

“ THE MOLLUSCS, ETC. The curious floral forms of the Zoöphytes have, as yet, attracted the greatest degree of attention among the constructors of marine Aquaria; yet other forms of ocean life offer equal, if not superior, opportunities for curious observation, and are equally well calculated to bear the confinement of the tank. Among them all, none more than the Molluscs, especially the shell-bearing division, which merits the careful attention of the student of Nature, as forming some of her most singular manifestations. ”

“ When, indeed, it receives the rays of light, and reflects them from the depths of the sea, 93rich with prismatic hues, the effect has been compared in splendour to that of the peacock’s tail when outspread in the sunshine. When in the Aquarium it crawls restlessly to and fro, as though anxious to exhibit its splendours in every possible point of view; the metallic tinges, changing with every position, being most magnificent by candle-light, when red and orange hues predominate, while by day-light pearly greens and blues are most frequent. ”

“ When we speak of an aquarium, we mean a vessel holding from eight to thirty gallons of water. Mr. Gosse describes his larger tank as being two feet long by eighteen inches wide and eighteen inches deep, and holding some twenty gallons. Smaller and very pretty tanks may be made fifteen inches long by twelve inches wide and twelve deep. Great varieties in form and elegance may be adapted to various situations.
There are two kinds of aquaria, the fresh- and the salt-water: the one fitted for the plants and animals of ponds and rivers; the other for the less known tenants of the sea. ”

“ At each side of the entrance lay a fish such as they had never seen before. It was flat as a doormat, and seemed to cling fast to the coral floor. Upon its back were quills, like those of a porcupine, all pointed and sharp. From the center of the fish arose a head shaped like a round ball, with a circle of piercing, bead-like eyes set in it. These strange guardians of the entrance might be able to talk and to tell what their numerous eyes saw, yet they remained silent and watchful. Even Aquareine gazed upon them curiously, and she gave a little shudder as she did so. ”

“ We shall yet have tropical Aquaria, in which the temperature and qualities of the sea between the tropics will be so successfully imitated, that the glorious shells of those regions will be exhibited in living motion to our greedily-curious gaze; and fish 110gleaming with unusual dyes—metallic azure, and silvery crimson—will dart and glide in our tropic-tempered tanks, as in their own tropic ocean, for our delight and gratification. ”

“ Between the columns the spaces are open, and from these arcades the currents of water flow with a loud noise, and in great abundance. The apertures on the sides are smaller than the others, and in each of those is placed a dragon spouting water into the spacious magnificent marble basin below. This fountain is furnished with water by the Aqueduct called Aqua Paolo; and it runs from the basin, in a very large stream into several canals, whence it is employed to work various corn, paper, and other mills, as well as to supply fountains and fish-ponds in the gardens and palaces of the opulent. ”

“ If a little real sea-water, even a pint or two, can be obtained to mix with the artificial, the ripening of the latter will be considerably hastened, but it is an interesting fact in the chemistry of the aquarium that, though in the first preparation of sea-water certain of the ingredients are left out of the prescription, in process of time those very same ingredients are to be discovered in it by means of analysis. ”

“ The marine aquarium must be supplied with sea-water taken not less than a mile from shore, or from the middle of a large river. When any is lost from the tank by evaporation, add fresh rain-water to supply the deficiency ”

“ He appears to have received this impression from Pliny, [13] who writes:—“The head, which is directed obliquely when they swim, is, in the living animal, hard and distended like a balloon.” The cuttle-fishes, and the octopus amongst them, propel themselves rapidly backward, when swimming, by the forcible expulsion from the funnel, in sudden and frequent jets, of the water drawn in at the branchial, or gill openings. Thus the organs of respiration become those of locomotion as well, and the funnel has also another function, being the orifice from which the excreta are expelled. ”

“ If we accept the hypotheses of the microbiologist Ehrenberg—who believes that these underwater depths are lit up by phosphorescent organisms—nature has certainly saved one of her most prodigious sights for residents of the sea, and I could judge for myself from the thousandfold play of the light. On both sides I had windows opening over these unexplored depths. The darkness in the lounge enhanced the brightness outside, and we stared as if this clear glass were the window of an immense aquarium.
The Nautilus seemed to be standing still. ”

“ All these species are small, easily managed, and especially suited to the Aquarium; as is also the finely-marked and long-rayed Ophicoma rosula, his deep scarlet, with bright black marks, and his slender limbs or rays, rendering him a conspicuous object. These Star-Fish glide round the Aquarium, by the aid of their thousand sucker-like feet, in a very interesting manner.
All the true Star-Fishes, the Asteriæ, have the body divided into rays, like a star, and are furnished with sucking feet, or cirrhi, which are tubular, 102and filled with water. ”

“ It is true that an unsatisfactory condition of the water, revealed by a slight taint in the odour, or a general turbidity, or the formation of a slight scum on the surface, may sometimes be rectified by the prompt application of some method of artificial aëration, but the aim of the aquarium-keeper should be not the rectification of unsatisfactory conditions, but the establishment of such a method of aëration that the unsatisfactory condition becomes an impossibility. We do not wish to discourage anyone who has the slightest desire to start a marine aquarium. ”