But to go back to our large aquarium. Fortunately for us, not many fish are as quarrelsome as the sticklebacks, and most of those I shall now describe live together in perfect harmony. The young of larger fish do very nicely for a time in the aquarium, and a young eel is a rather amusing although somewhat sluggish fellow to keep.
The most amusing denizens are creatures of the crab family. The little hermit-crabs, found in quantities on any shelving beach of the bay or sea inlet, create much sport for the young naturalist. These little crabs, you must know, are soft little fellows, for whom nature in a frugal moment prepared no house or covering to protect them from the thumps they might receive from both water and stones; but the little fellows, with a shrewdness one would hardly suspect in creatures so small, rise equal to the occasion, and help themselves to the empty snail-shells left by their more fortunate neighbors. When small they occupy the little black snail-shells, moving from a smaller to a larger as they increase in size. After outgrowing these plainer homes they take possession of the pretty grayish-white shells also found in abundance on our shores. It is frequently quite amusing to watch two fight over a particularly desirable one, which either has chosen for its own, and ofttimes the battle will be long and heavy before either will give up that which he considers by rights his own. If you have one or more of these little wanderers in your globe, remember to put in two or three empty snail-shells for them to flee to when they have outgrown their present abode. Their manner of eating affords a very entertaining spectacle. Clams, either soft or hard, cut into tiny bits, form the principal food for all the dwellers in the aquarium, and a long stick with a needle driven in one end, to form a tiny spear, is used in passing it to them. When a particular crab is to be fed, a bit of clam is taken up on the needle, and lowered down in the water to a position directly in front of him. At first, before he has become acquainted with this mode of dining, he draws in his claws, and nothing but the shell is to be seen upon the bottom; but in a few moments the little fellow lets himself out again, little by little, with a quick, jerky movement, till at last his two little eyes stand in an upright position, and he is ready to seize the tempting morsel. This he does with his longest claw, and holding the clam firm in his grasp, he proceeds to pick it in pieces with the other long claw, and pass it along to the smaller set, which in turn give it to the next in order, until it finally disappears in the mouth itself, and is swallowed by the little creature.