AQUARIA:

THEIR CONSTRUCTION, ARRANGEMENT,
AND MANAGEMENT,

WITH FULL INFORMATION AS TO THE BEST WATER-PLANTS
AND LIVE STOCK TO BE KEPT, HOW AND WHERE TO
OBTAIN THEM, AND HOW TO KEEP THEM IN HEALTH.

BY

REV. GREGORY C. BATEMAN, A.K.C.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

This Work forms the First Division of
"The Aquarium Book."

LONDON:

L. UPCOTT GILL, BAZAAR BUILDINGS, DRURY LANE, W.C.

NEW YORK:

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 153-157, FIFTH AVENUE.

1904.

LUPCOTT GILL, LONDON AND COUNTY PRINTING works,
BAZAAR BUILDINGS, W.C.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST

EDITION.

I

WAS always fond of Natural History, and while I was a boy I frequently looked forward to one day possessing an aquarium so large that I might collect as many aquatic creatures as I liked from the neighbouring ponds and streams, place them all together in my tank, and then make myself quite happy by watching the habits and the changes of my captives. But, alas! in course of time, I found, as so many find, that the realisation of one's hopes does not always bring with it the anticipated pleasure. For when I did eventually own as big and-as appeared to me at that time as suitable an aquarium as I could wish for, and when I did stock it with many curious and (to my mind) interesting animals, I was, after all, not very happy, nor even content; far from it. The Sticklebacks and the aquatic Spiders would not build their nests side by side; the Dytiscus marginalis absolutely refused to live on anything like friendly terms with the Minnows; the Snails while crawling over my most valued plants were not able to refrain from devouring them and ruining them; the water would not keep bright, nor the glass of the tank clear, and my patience was sorely tried. I bought or borrowed whatever books I could upon aquarium and kindred matters, but I was not able to obtain all the information I required. Then I attempted to find out by experiment