File:The complete aquarium book; the care and breeding of goldfish and tropical fishes (1936) (20678188661).jpg

Title: The complete aquarium book; the care and breeding of goldfish and tropical fishes
Identifier: completeaquarium00inne (find matches)
Year: 1936 (1930s)
Authors: Innes, William T. (William Thornton), 1874-1969
Subjects: Aquariums; Goldfish
Publisher: New York, Halcyon house
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
AQUARIUM MANAGEMENT only they have both to extract the air and then absorb into the fishes' blood the oxygen which it contains. Bearing in mind the fact that water holds a certain amount of air, the question arises, how is the air to be renewed as it is exhausted by the fish? Also what becomes of the impurities (mostly carbon dioxide) exhaled by the breathers of air-in-water ? The surface of the water is our great friend in solving these two im- portant questions. That is where most of the magic takes place. New air is absorbed here and carbon dioxide is liberated. These processes take place with certainty, but not rapidity. The state of affairs in the aquar- ium, then, is fish exhausting the oxygen by breathing, and the water re- plenishing it by absorption at the surface. This rather lengthy but neces- sary explanation, it is hoped, will bring the reader to the conclusion that the most important factor in aquarium management is plenty of water surface in proportion to the number and size of fishes. Certainly it is true of aquaria containing temperate-water fishes, the subjects we have in mind at this time. Tropical varieties will be treated of elsewhere. A graphic illustration will perhaps better fix the principle in mind. If water permanently filled the fig- ures 1 and 2, each having just the same water surface area, which would success- fully maintain more fishes ? The reader who has fol- lowed carefully will answer "Neither!" If both were stocked with too many fishes, figure 1 would last longer without a change of water because it would be starting off with a larger total supply of oxygen, but after the initial supply had been exhausted, the capac- ity of both aquaria for maintaining fish life would be precisely the same, be- cause the air surfaces are the same. A straight-sided aquarium from which more than half the water has evaporated will continue to satisfac- torily support fish life, provided it was not overstocked in the beginning.
Text Appearing After Image:
'

Note About Images