Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/158

Rh carnation, with an oval eye-like spot on each side, of a deep red hue.

When put into a vessel of water (no easy matter without injuring it, as it adheres so firmly to its hold), it immediately clings to the side of its new habitation, or to the first solid substance with which it comes into contact. Here it will probably remain for a considerable time, unmoved, or now and then shift its position a few inches, or take a wayward start, and wriggle along with an awkward sort of agility to some other part of the Aquarium, to which it sticks fast in a moment as before. During the night it is much more restless; but, so far as I am aware, it has no power of hovering in the water, or swimming deliberately to and fro as other fishes do, its locomotive powers consisting only of the ability to shift from one stationary position to another.

As it thus has no power of pursuing prey, I conjecture that its subsistence is derived from those microscopic organisms which are scattered abundantly through the water, and which furnish support to multitudes of other creatures more strictly immoveable. In the case of these, which are for the most part invertebrate, strongly ciliated surfaces are provided, which produce constant and forcible currents, and thus the floating atoms in the surrounding fluid are carried along to the orifice of the digestive canal. Our little Sucking-fish has no external apparatus of cilia, that I am cognizant of, but a similar effect is produced in another way. I have noticed that while this little fish remains stationary, being fast moored by its breast anchor, it maintains a constant and