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[Illustration: CABINET AQUARIUM.]
THE BOOK
OF
THE AQUARIUM
AND
WATER CABINET;
OR
Practical Instructions
ON THE FORMATION, STOCKING, AND MANAGEMENT, IN ALL
SEASONS, OF COLLECTIONS OF FRESH WATER AND
MARINE LIFE:
BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD,
AUTHOR OF "RUSTIC ADORNMENTS FOR HOMES OF TASTE," &c., &c.
LONDON:
GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1856.
W. H. COLLINGRIDGE, PRINTER, 1, LONG LANE.
CONTENTS.
THE FRESH-WATER TANK.
PAGE
Chapter I.--What is an Aquarium? 6
The Name and the Object--Philosophy of the Aquarium.
Chapter II.--Proper Kinds of Vessels 10
Rectangular Tanks--Construction of Tanks--Warington's
Stope-back Tank--Bell Glasses and Vases--Stands for Vases.
Chapter III.--Fitting-up--Rockwork 17
The Bottom--Mould--Planting--The Water--Aspect.
Chapter IV.--Plants for the Aquarium 21
How to stock a Tank quickly--Selection of Plants--Water
Soldier--Starwort--Vallisneria--Anacharis--Myriophyllum--
Potamogeton--Nuphar Lutea--Pipewort--Utricularia--Isopelis--
Subularia--Ranunculus--Hydrocaris--Alisma--Lemna, &c.
Chapter V.--Fishes for the Aquarium 32
Cyprinus Carpio, Gibelio, Carassius, Auratus, Brama,
Leucisus, Rutilus, Alburnus, Phoxinus, Gobio, Tinca,
Barbus, Barbatula, Cephalus--Percidæ--Gasterosteus.
Chapter VI.--Reptiles, Mollusks, and Insects 44
Chapter VII.--Selection of Stock 46
Chapter VIII.--General Management 48
Feeding--Confervæ--Uses of Mollusks--Objections to
Mollusks--Use of Confervoid Growths--Periodical
Cleansing--Exhaustion of Oxygen--Temperature--Dead
Specimens--Disease of Fishes.
THE MARINE TANK.
Chapter I.--The Vessel 53
Points in which the Marine differs from the River Tank--
Stained Glass.
Chapter II.--Fitting-up 56
The Bottom--Rocks, Arches, and Caves--The Water--Artificial
Sea Water--Marine Salts--Management of Artificial Water--
Caution to the Uninitiated--Filtering.
Chapter III.--Collecting Specimens 66
Chapter IV.--The Plants 69
Chapter V.--The Animals 71
Fishes--Mollusks--Annelides--Zoophytes--Actinia
Mesembryanthemum--Anguicoma, Bellis, Gemmacea,
Crassicornis, Parasitica, Dianthus, &c.
Chapter VI.--What is an Anemone? 84
Chapter VII.--General Management 91
Grouping of Objects--Sulphuretted Hydrogen--Preservation
of the Water--Aeration--Filter--Decay of Plants--Death of
Anemones--Removal of Objects--Density of the Water--
Green Stain--Feeding--The Syphon--Purchase of Specimens.
THE WATER CABINET.
Chapter I.--Construction of Cabinets 101
Distinctions between the Cabinet and the Aquarium--
Construction of a Cabinet--Glasses.
Chapter II.--Collecting and Arranging Specimens 106
Implements for Collecting--Nets, Jars, and Phials--
Pond Fishing.
Chapter III.--The Stock 110
Chapter IV.--Larva 114
The Dragon Fly--The Gnat--The Case Fly.
Chapter V.--Coleoptera 130
Dytiscus Marginalis--Hydrous Piceus--Colymbetes--
Gyrinus Natator.
Chapter VI.--Heteroptera 139
Hydrometra--Notanecta, Nepa, &c.
Chapter VII.--The Frog--Notes on Management 140
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.
Cabinet Aquarium _Frontispiece._
Tank containing Vallisneria Spiralis, Anacharis,
Gold Carp, Roach, and Minnow _Page_ 11
Vase Aquarium 15
Callitriche 22
Stratoides Aloides 24
Vallisneria Spiralis 25
Myriophyllum Spicatum 27
Potamogeton Densus 28
Ranunculus Aquatalis 30
Hydrocaris Morsus Ranæ 31
Tank containing Gudgeon, Prussian Carp, Loach, and Bream 33
Tank containing Minnow, Tench, and Perch 41
Tank containing Planorbis Corneus, Paludina Vivipara,
Lymnea Stagnalis, Unio Pictorum, Tumidus, and Anodon
Cygneus 45
Cleansing Sponge 50
Actinia Mesembryanthemum, Dictyota Dychotoma 64
Porcellana Platycheles, and Cancer Pagurus 72
Carcinas Mænas 73
Actinia Anguicoma, Trochus Ziziphinus, Ulva Latissima,
Bryopsis Plumosa, Acorn Barnacle 75
Actinia Bellis and Gemmacea, Delesseria Alata,
Polysiphonia Urceolata 76
Actinia Dianthus, Delesseria Sanguinea, Callithamnium
Roseum, Griffithsia Setacea 82
Edwardsia Vestita, Æsop Prawn, Enteromorpha Compressa,
Ulva Latissima 86
Dipping Tube 96
Syphon 99
Hand Net 107
Diving Spiders and Nests 112
Transformation of the Dragon Fly 120
Virgin and Green Dragon Flies 122
Larva of the Gnat 124
Larva of Stratiomys 125
Larvæ and Imago of Case Fly 128
Grating of Case Worm, Magnified 129
Dytiscus and Larva, Reduced 132
Hydrous Piceus 134
Colymbetes 135
Gyrinus Natator 137
Gyrinus, Magnified 138
Water Scorpion 142
Transformations of the Tadpole 144, 145
Pocket Lens 147
PREFACE.
Every day adds to the popularity of the Aquarium, but every day does not
add to the accuracy of the published descriptions of it, or the
perspicuity of the directions everywhere given for its formation and
maintenance. Lately the periodical press has teemed with essays on the
subject; but it does not require a very close scrutiny for the practical
man to discern that a majority of such papers express the enthusiasm
rather than the knowledge of their authors--a few weeks' management of a
tank seeming to be considered a sufficient qualification for the
expounding of its philosophy, though it demands an acquaintance with the
minutest details of the most refined departments of botany and zoology
to do anything like justice to it.
I have done my best to explain and illustrate the whole _rationale_ of
marine and fresh-water tanks in my lately published work, _Rustic
Adornments for Homes of Taste_; but since that work, owing to the
expense incurred in its production, is published at a price which every
lover of the Aquarium cannot command, I have thought it no less a duty
than a pleasure to treat the subject more briefly, but still
practically, and I hope profitably, in a volume of less dimensions and
less cost, written for another class of readers.
The object of this little work is to teach the beginner how to proceed
safely and pleasurably in setting up aquaria, whether for mere ornament
or for the study of the novel forms of animal and vegetable life which
these collections enable us to observe closely, no less for the increase
of our knowledge of the world, than for the exaltation of our sense of
the omnipotence and benignity of Him who created it.
The Nursery, Tottenham.
THE BOOK OF THE AQUARIUM.
THE FRESH WATER TANK.
CHAPTER I.
WHAT IS AN AQUARIUM?
_The Name._--The term _vivarium_ was first applied to the vessel
containing a collection of specimens of aquatic life, and the first
vivarium of such a kind, on anything like an extensive scale, was that
opened to public exhibition in the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens.
Many naturalists had previously made experiments to ascertain some
certain method of preserving aquatic animals in a living and healthy
state; and the vivarium, which is the result of those experiments, may
be considered as an imitation of the means employed by nature herself in
the preservation and perpetuation of the various forms of animal and
vegetable life which people the oceans and the streams.
The vivarium is, therefore, no recent or sudden discovery, but a growth
of years; and its present perfection is the fruit of many patient
investigations, trials, disappointments, and determinations to achieve
success.
The term _vivarium_ applies to _any_ collection of animals, to a park of
deer, a rabbit warren, a menagerie, or even a travelling show
containing an asthmatic lion, a seedy cockatoo, and a pair of snakes
that are hourly stirred up with a long pole. Hence such a term could
never convey the very special idea of a vessel containing such specimens
as form the stock of the aquarium. When this was felt, the affix _aqua_
was added, to convey the idea of the watery medium in which the
specimens are immersed, and hence we had _aqua-vivarium_, a compound of
too clumsy a character to remain long in use. It is the _water_ that
gives the collection its special character; and water always reminds us
of old Aquarius, who treats us to an annual drenching from his celestial
watering-pot. Aquarius triumphed, and the pretty prison in which his
cool companions of the sign Pisces were doomed to be confined acquired
his name; and, since it is better to follow than to oppose usage, we
leave the philological part of the question to the learned, and adopt
_Aquarium_ as the name of our collection.
_The Object_ of the Aquarium is to enable us to study the economy and
derive pleasure from the contemplation of various forms of aquatic life,
contributed by the lakes, the mountain rills, and the "resounding sea."
Collections of objects that inhabit rivers and lakes are of course
called Fresh-water aquaria; those that owe their origin to the sea are
called Marine aquaria. A more simple name for the first would be _River
aquarium_, which I humbly suggest it shall in future be called. But an
aquarium is not a mere cabinet of specimens; it is a water garden in
which we cultivate choice plants, and it is also in some sort a
menagerie, in which we see living creatures of kinds hitherto the least
studied by naturalists, displaying to our close gaze their natural
forms, and colours, and instincts, and economy, as freely and as happily
as if they were still hidden from us in their native depths. In this
sense, the aquarium remunerates for any trouble it may cost, in the
lessons it affords of the workings of Almighty Wisdom, in those regions
of life and wonder to which it introduces us.
_The Philosophy of the Aquarium_ must be clearly understood by those who
purpose to cultivate it. It is a self-supporting, self-renovating
collection, in which the various influences of animal and vegetable life
balance each other, and maintain within the vessel a correspondence of
action which preserves the whole. A mere globe of fish is not an
aquarium in the sense here indicated; because, to preserve the fish for
any length of time, the water must be frequently changed; and even then
the excess of light to which they are exposed, and the confinement in a
small space, in which they quickly exhaust the vital properties of the
water, are circumstances at variance with their nature, and sooner or
later prove fatal to their lives.
In an aquarium, _the water is not changed at all_, or at least only at
long intervals, as we shall explain hereafter; and besides the enclosure
of fishes in a vessel of water, _growing plants_ of a suitable kind,
always form a feature of the collection. Formed on this plan, an
aquarium is an imitation of Nature on a small scale. The tank is a lake
containing aquatic plants and animals, and these maintain each other in
the water in the same way as terrestrial plants and animals contribute
mutually to each other's support in the preservation of the purity of
the air.
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 in its place; and in course of time the free oxygen of the water
is exhausted, the water becomes stale, and at last poisonous, from
excess of carbonic acid. If the water is not changed the fishes come to
the surface and gulp atmospheric air. But, though they naturally
_breathe air as we do_, yet they are formed to extract it from the
water; and when compelled to take air from the surface, the gills, or
lungs, soon get inflamed, and death at last puts an end to their
sufferings.
Now if a gold-fish globe be not over-crowded with fishes we have only to
throw in a goodly handful of some water weed--such as the _Callitriche_,
for instance--and a new set of chemical operations commences at once,
and it becomes unnecessary to change the water. The reason of this is
easily explained. Plants absorb oxygen as animals do; but they also
absorb carbonic acid, and from the carbonic acid thus absorbed, they
remove the pure carbon, and convert it into vegetable tissue, giving out
the free oxygen either to the water or the air, as the case may be.
Hence, in a vessel containing water plants in a state of healthy growth,
the plants exhale more oxygen than they absorb, and thus replace that
which the fishes require for maintaining healthy respiration. Any one
who will observe the healthy plants in an aquarium, when the sun shines
through the tank, will see the leaves studded with bright beads, some of
them sending up continuous streams of minute bubbles. These beads and
bubbles are pure oxygen, which the plants distil from the water itself,
in order to obtain its hydrogen, and from carbonic acid, in order to
obtain its carbon.
There is one more feature, which no writer on the aquarium has yet
noticed, namely--when a tank is properly stocked, the water soon gets
crowded with infusorial animalculæ, which swarm among the plants, and on
the sides of the glass in countless thousands, visible only by the aid
of the microscope. These are in accordance with a natural law; the
presence of vegetable matter in water always induces them. But observe
their value: they contribute to the sustenance of the smaller fishes, by
supplying them with food; and, strangely enough, the researches of
modern chemists have proved that these minute creatures respire in much
the same way as plants. While all other animals absorb oxygen, and
perish if the supply of that gas is withdrawn, these minute organisms
absorb carbonic acid, _and give out oxygen in abundance_. This has been
proved by Professor Liebig, who collected several jars of oxygen from
tanks containing infusoria only. Every one who has had experience in the
management of tanks must have noticed that the water in a tank which has
been established some months will sustain a much greater amount of
animal life than one of the same dimensions, but recently stocked. The
presence of infusoria in immense numbers is _one_ of the reasons for
this.
So far I have endeavoured to explain the theory of the aquarium, in the
merest outline. Still, brief as this chapter must be, I must here
impress upon the mind of the beginner, that unless the leading features
of the theory are borne in mind, success can never be achieved in the
establishment of water collections of any kind.
If a tank requires frequent cleansing, or frequent changing of water, if
the fishes come to the surface for air, or perish through the presence
in the water of offensive matter--in fact, if the whole affair has not a
distinctly self-supporting character, such as will preserve its purity,
and strength, and beauty, without alteration of any kind--it must be
concluded that it has been either unskilfully stocked or injudiciously
managed.
It is my object to explain briefly, but clearly, the whole _rationale_
of aquarium management, whether the tank be adopted as a mere
ornament--than which there is nothing more beautiful--or as a museum of
instruction and a school of study--than which there is nothing more
suggestive, nothing that can afford finer lessons of the subtlety of the
forces, or the refinement of the instincts, that give life and
loveliness to the "world of waters."