Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/309

 Popular Science Monthly

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��How to Make an Aquarium for Tropical Fish

ORNAMENTAL tropical fish which are kept in cool or cold water during the winter do not show their gorgeous color effects. Their appetites are not what they should be and the fish are slow of movement and lazy in actions. Their liveliness leaves them. No longer do they disport themselves as is their wgnt in warmer waters and they rarely multiply in this, the best season of the year, winter. Tropical fish require a temperature of

��leave no more than ^ or J^-in. play on either side. This is a device which will suffice in most cases, as it effectually keeps the water at the required tempera- ture. In the morning the cover should, of course, be removed.

Heating the water of the aquarium directly, will give better satisfaction than the above mentioned method. An appa- ratus with which to do this, besides being more efficient and easy to install in al- most all aquariums, has the advantage of being absolutely fire proof. This device consists of a tall, not too narrow.

���A cardboard box covering for an ordinary aquarium at night. An aquarium heated with a candle lamp which is placed at the bottom of a glass tube set in the water, and which applies heat from beneath the receptacle. Also methods of heating an aquarium with inclosed tubes

��at least 60 deg. F. To keep the water at this temperature in winter, especially designed aquariums are built. But or- dinary aquariums may easily be adapted to give equal satisfaction along these lines.

If one of these simple aquariums stands in a room which is heated during the day, no complicated heating system need be used to keep the water at a constant temperature during the night. A card- board box, large enough to completely cover the tank is placed over the aquarium at night. The sides of the box should reach to the bottom of the aquarium and

��cylindrical glass jar placed in the water of the aquarium. This jar is filled with lamp oil and lighted with one or more Niirnberger night lights which consist of a wick dipped into paraffin. It is held erect by a wire, radiating outward and the whole apparatus is supported by three corks to which the wires are at- tached. If these lights refuse to burn in the glass, a small tubing of either rubber or glass is inserted to insure fresh air reaching the wick. Although a large quantity of heat is lost by this method, it is absolutely safe and no accident can ever result from it. Electricity may

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