RE: NANFA-- Hydra

Irate_Mormon (archimed_at_netdoor.com)
Mon, 15 Apr 2002 21:07:43 -0500

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At 08:40 AM 4/16/02, you wrote:
>This last technique is probably the most famous as it appears in numerous
>editions of Exotic Aquarium Fishes. Innes apparently gave demonstrations
>locally. In his article "Raising Fish on Hydra" he reports setting up a
>public exhibition for an "important public meeting of the Pennsylvania Fish
>Culturists' Association" using a divided aquarium stocked with hydra on one
>side and gouramis on the other. When the partition was removed, for a
>gathering a spectators, the gouramis "went to work with a will" and in 15
>minutes the hydra were gone. Innes' article includes two photographs of the
>hydra-gobbling gouramis.

Evidently hydra, planaria, and the like were more of a problem in Innes'
day when filtration was fairly primitive. I remember I had one tank
(containing an african lungfish) which became infested with a swarm of
swirling little bugs, some of which attached themselves to the fish. When
I looked a them under a dissecting scope they looked like little clams with
feet hanging out. Something jogged my memory and I opened one of my
various editions of Innes and there it was - Cypris. How often do you hear
of that one any more?

I say filtration was primitive, but I have some early, pristine copies of
"The Aquarium", and vendors are still hawking pretty much the same aquarium
gizmos today that they were 67 years ago.

Prost,

Martin
Jackson, MS
--------------------
A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you
call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you
say. "That's dynamite, baby."
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