Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/151

110, where the water becomes perpetually aerated; for they rarely descend far below this, but play day and night at the top of the water. They are social little fishes, congregating together into a little schull as soon as put in, and always manifesting a tendency to association. They were amusing, from their liveliness, being never at rest, but ever swimming waywardly to and fro, most vivaciously; and from the eagerness with which they fed. Any minute atoms of food, either vegetable or animal, they greedily devoured. A bit of apple or pear-pulp, or of a ripe plum, or crumb of bread, slightly chewed and spat into the water, became the centre of rapid evolutions, the result of which was that every atom was cleared away before it had descended many inches below the surface. A morsel of meat, or of fish, cooked, or the flesh of prawn, treated in the same way, was devoured with the same eagerness; but perhaps the favourite food was the spawn of a Prawn, or Shrimp, either cooked or raw, every egg of which was snapped up as it sank.

They were rather pugnacious, chasing each other about, when one was more successful than usual, just as chickens do, and often snatching the food from each other's mouth.

When, through a predominance of animal life over the vegetable, or from any other cause, the water in the Tank has become to a considerable extent deprived of its oxygen, I have noticed that the little Mullets endeavour to supply the deficiency by protruding their mouths from the surface and sucking in mouthfuls of air, presently disgorging a number of minute