Page:The Book of the Aquarium and Water Cabinet.djvu/32

22 the collection by the introduction of fishes. Where a beginner has sufficient patience to wait, this is very advisable, because the whole gets well settled, the plants start into growth, and the water gets softened and charged with oxygen. But this plan is not the only one that may be followed, and if well-washed pebbles be used instead of mould, as I have advised, the fishes may be introduced the same day as the plants are inserted, by

first taking care that you insert plenty of large healthy plants, and then throw on the top as much of the brook starwort—Callitriche autumnalis—as will cover the whole. I lately stocked two tanks in this way, and performed the whole in less than two hours, forming the bottom, planting the vegetation, and adding the fish—perch, tench, Prussian and British carp, roach, minnows,