Property of Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida. Englewood Trade … · Property of Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida. Englewood Trade Wind SEPTEMBER, 1940 ENGLEWOOD,

Property of Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida.

Englewood

Trade Wind S E PTEMBER, 1940 ENGLEWOOD, FLA. NUMBER 1

Z.R.S. ADDS NEW SUPPLY BASE AT KEY WEST FOR AQUARIUM MATERIAL

With the opening of a new supply base at Key West o.n August 20, Zo.o.­lo.gical Research Supplyo.f Englewo.od, F lo.rida, embarked o.n a pro.gram o.f expansio.n designed to. supply mo.re fo.rms fo.r the research wo.rker and a lso. to. make available a wide selectio.n o.f interesting reef fauna for the warm water marine aquarium.

Z. R. S. has in the past been able to. handle certain Key West land and ma­rine fo.rms, but the establishment o.f the permanent base under a co.mpe­tent laborato.ry technician will at o.nce pro.vide a much steadier supply o.f bo.th living and specially preserved items.

Heading the Key West branch o.f Z. R. S. is Ferd Dalto.n, o.f Englewo.o.d, who. has been with the co.mpany fo.r

Orders should be directed to Zoological Research Supply at En­glewood, Florida. Shipments- will be m a d e from our most convenient cur r ent source of supply.

nearly five years and who. steps into. his ' new Po.st with an adequate back­gro.und o.f co.llecting, preserving, and shipping experiences. Mr. Dalto.n is particularly trained in the handling o.f marine fo.rms.

Especially wo.rthy o.f note are the price reductio.ns po.ssible o.n a number o.f fo.rm s under the wo.rking arrange­ments pro.vided by the new branch.

Amo.ng o.ther things, the Key West statio.n will keep sto.cks o.f living land hermit crabs, gecko.s and o.ther lizards, giant tree fro.gs, tree snails, sco.rpio.ns, and giant ro.aches fo.r pro.mpt ship­ment. Likewise, living specimens fo.r t he "Reef Aquarium" and man y inter­esting and co.lorful animals of the

F lo.rida Keys will be co.nstant ly avail­able.

The statio.n w ill be able to. handle many special o.rders fo.r research ma­terial, and sufficient material will be provided to. a llo.w fo.r so.me o.f the mo.re co.mplicated preparatio.ns. Visito.rs in­terested in examining the new base will be welco.me.

SCIENCE COTTONS TO COTTON RATS

N e,west o.f the ro.dents to. serve as a co.ntro.l agent in the fie ld o.f medical science is the so.uthern co.tto.n rat, which is being used in increasingly larger n u mbers in the campaign against infantile paralysis.

A strain o.f paralysis may be intro.­duced into. mo.nkeys, fo.r experiment, and fro.m mo.nkeys to. the co.tto.n rats. The rats are far cheaper, permit a ho.s­pital staff to. make many more experi­ments o.n frequently limited budgets.

The co.tto.n rat is a small, sho.rt­bo.died and sho.rt-tailed rodent with dark bro.wn fur and ro.undish ears. Rats are trapped at night, must be re­moved fro.m the traps fairly early in

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T HE ENGLEWOOD TRADE WIND

This publicatio.n will be issued mo.nthly fo.r free distributio.n to. o.ur friends and custo.mers. It will co.n­tain no.n-scientific articles o.f gen­eral interest, news o.f co.llecting co.nditio.ns in so.uth Flo.rida , as well as new price listings and descrip­tio.ns o.f additions to. o.ur line.

ZOOLOGICAL RESE ARCH SUPPLY Eng lewood, F lorid a

Property of Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida.Page 2 TRADE WIND. September 1940

MACKEREL FISHERS SEE BETTER AT NIGHT

Spending a night or two with the commercial fishermen off the West Coast of Florida is an experience that would appeal to the layman as well as to the amateur ichthyologist.

The most unusual feature of night mackerel fishing is that the darker the night, the easier it is for the fishermen to "see" the fish. Actually, what the fishermen see are the phosphorescent traces left by the fish. Some of the smaller fish swim in closely bunched schools with a darting movement; sharks move through the water in big, curling swirls; and the mackerel leave long, torpedo-like wakes.

Lampblack has lately come into pop­ularity as a coloring agent for the nets, so that the fish do not see them so well and will not jump over them.

Two general methods of night mack­erel fishing are used. One, drifting, consists of running in close to the shore and dropping one end of the 24-foot-deep net with a lighted bucket buoy, then running the boat straight out from shore until the whole 1800 or 2400 feet of net are out.

After this, the fishermen merely sit in their boats swapping stories, eating, or sleeping for perhaps half an hour while the net and boat drift with the tide. Then the nets are picked up, with two and sometimes three men bringing them in. It is a common sight to see the lights of a dozen boats and their dozen blue buoy lights winking in widely separated but fairly even lines along the shore, like rows of street lights.

Another and a more common meth­od, because it does not depend on the tide change for proper conditions, is that of cruising until a school is lo­cated and then surrounding it with the net. The captain or owner of the boat stands in a small forward hatch look­ing for fish and steering the boat. All boats run with their lights out, cruise generally at about three - quarter speed.

When a school is located, the crew throws the buoy-lighted end of the net overboard, and the captain then runs the boat in a large, loose circle at top speed, with the lead line rattling out over the stern with a staccato ma­chine g un-like noise. After twenty minutes or so has passed, the net is

picked up and the performance is re­peated.

Picking up the net is, of course, the major piece of work. The men work in oilskins, and all wear canvas gloves to avoid some of the many inevitable cuts they would otherwise receive. Mackerel are yanked out of the meshes by the tail and tossed into the bottom of the boat. A part of the crew's job is to gut the fish and toss them into a barrel holding several cakes of ice for initial chilling. If many mackerel are taken, those that have been chilled can be removed and others put on the ice.

The boats that are in use on the West Coast run about24feet in length, are generally powered by automobile motors, and can carry a load of better than 2,000 pounds of fish. However, fishing is a gamble, and very few catches run that high. It is not un­usual for a night's catch to run as low as 75 pounds, or for the fishermen to cruise every night for a week or more without getting their nets wet. Of course, all this means that expendi­tures are going on just the same.

Most common arrangements for splitting the proceeds are for the boat to receive one share-which goes for repairs, paint, and nets, the captain to receive a share, and the crew to receive a share. All work hard, earn somewhere from $600 to $900 a sea­son.

One of the treats in store for any­one who makes a night trip is, of course, sighting the school and then picking up the netted fish. Another treat may come when there are no fish to be found in the early part of the night, and the captain decides to an­chor just outside the line of breakers and sleep for an hour before making another trial. The sound of the surf, the gently rocking boat, and the star­studded but moonless sky will long be remembered by the initiate.

When the boat has tied up in the early morning and the fish have been weighed in at the ice house and the entrails dumped over the side for the catfish-they have been carried back to port so as not to attract sharks­there is still work to do: the net must be run out on drying platform or rack.

Mackerel fishing is work, but a night or two of it are almost necessary to anyone who wants to have a complete summer along Florida's west coast.

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September 1940 TRADE WIND Page 3

THE MARINE AQUARIUM

The balanced fresh-water aquarium does not have its counterpart in a sea­water aquarium. Marine plants are poor aerators, and most marine organ­isms live in an environment of rela­tively violent water movement. Some of the hardy forms can be kept for a considerable period in sea-water with­out any kind of aeration or means of disposal of wastes, but any perman­ence must he achieved by mechanical filtration and aeration.

The maintenance of a marine aquar­ium with it'S complement of interest­ing and colorful animals is not diffi­cult if the proper equipment is avail­able. The Marco inside celluloid filter, continuousl operated by any standard air pump, serves to keep the water sparkling and prevents the alkaline re­serve of the sea-water from falling off too rapidly. This filter also acts in a limited way as an aerator, and for small aquariums is sufficient.

The salt-water is more corrosive than fresh water and aquarium frames of resistant alloys, adequately protected from contact with the water, are to be desired. Toxic substances are as likely to cause trouble in a sea-water aquar­ium as in a fresh-water aquarium, and careful attention to avoid the intro­duction of chemicals, oils, or metals is essential. The sea-water used for the aquarium should be uncontaminated, and water taken from harbors or near harbors or river mouths is undesirable and is usually fatal to many species.

The loss of water through evapora­tion should be adjusted by the addi­tion of distilled water. The addition should be made slowly and carefully, preferably drop by drop. Many forms are not particularly disturbed by fresh water but others may be killed by it in short order. If it is at all practical, a new supply of sea-water should be in­troduced every three to six months.

Temperature change, particularly sudden temperature change, is more likely to injure marine specimens than heat or cold. Except for the more del­icate species, aquariums kept at ordi­nary room temperature should be sat­isfactory. For specimens from Flor­ida waters, a temperature of 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is probably best, and this temperature is easily held by

use of the type of thermostat and heater ordinarily employed for tropi­cal fishes.

An almost endless variety of fishes, crustaceans, starfish, mollusks, coelen­terates, and worms, along with some corals, alcyonarians, and marine algae can be successfully kept in the aquar­ium. However, do not expect to find much by way of precedent in handling these. The habits and life histories of many of the available species are not known, and surprises are the rule. The tempo of life in the sea is faster and the competition keener than in fresh water. A greater abundance of life is produced and the slaughter is terrific. Do not expect to find the happy family assortment of animals. In an aquar­ium well stocked with a variety of ma­rine forms, the sickly or unwary are soon removed by their fellows. Your aquarium is unlikely to be just like any other aquarium and the manage­ment of its population will certainly tax your skill.

Zoological Research Supply offers some assortments of marine forms which are quite hardy and interesting. Dwarf sea-hor~es which give birth to fully formed young-and the male parent produces them, sea-urchins carrying bits of shell for protection and walking by means of hundreds of hydraulic feet, starfish ready to pour out a stomach on any defenseless mor­sel, hermit crabs housed in the shells originally occupied by some marine snail, are all included in one assort­ment at low cost.

SCIENCE COTTONS TO COTTON RATS

(Continued from Page One)

the morning to keep them from being killed by the hot sun or by ants. Best spots are in the palmetto brush near dwellings and in or near refuse piles.

Apples and peanuts are used as cot­ton rat bait, and peanuts and potatoes comprise the dining car menu for the rats on their trip north. Shipping in separate compartments is necessary because the rats fight viciously, fre­quently scalp each other in their bat­tles.

Z. R. S. has shipped more than 1500 cotton rats, all taken near Englewood, in the last year.

Property of Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida.Page 4 TRADE WIND

AQUARIUM EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES FILTERING AND CIRCULATING EQUIPMENT

Marco Celluloid Filter. This filter, all celluloid except for stainless steel straps and specially suited for use in the marine aquarium, hangs inside the aquarium and is oper­ated by an air line which may be taken from the aerator supply. Circulation through charcoal and stone crystals keeps the water exceptionally clear. Cleansing the filter is easily done. The size is 3" by 4" by 6 %" and is adequate for an aquarium of 15 gallons or more. Each, complete

September 1940

with charcoal and crystals, postpaid .. ............. ...... _______________ $ 6.75 BRABA W Marco Celluloid Filter. Same as the preceding but larger, for aquariums of large capacity. Filter size 4" by 6" by 8 IAl " . Each, postpaid __ ______________________ __ ___ ____________ _____ __________ __ _ 10.00 BRABAY Marco Heavy Duty Filter. This filter operates in connec-tion with a circulating water system and is specially adapt-ed for use with the Marco water pump. Filtration is ac-complished by beds of gravel, charcoal, and st one crystals. The filter may be cleaned by back-washing. Each, trans-portation paid ____ , _____________ __ __ ________ ____ _______ ___ _______________________ ___ 17.50 BRABAZ Marco Water Pump. Special. The Marco water pump with an all rubber block for circulating sea-water, a pump with the usual excellence of design and workmanship which characterizes Marco equipment. Each, transportation paid _____ __________________________ ____ _________ ___ ___ ____ ______ ___ ___ ___ _________________ 27.50 BRABIB Rubber Tubing. For circulating water system. P er foot, postpaid _________________ ________ _________________________ ____ _____________________ ____ _ Celluloid Tubing. For circulating water syst ems. Per foot, postpaid _______ __________ _______ ______________ ____ __ ____ ____ ____ ____________ ___ _

AERATION EQUIPMENT Marco Air Pump. Standard Model A. This pump is de­signed to handle from 1 to 12 air releasers, or 1 to 3 cel­luloid filters, or combinations of these. The pump delivers 20 to 24 cubic inches of air per minute with a current con­sumption of 20 watts per hour, when operated at the rated voltage. This model is 6" by 4 %" by 5" and weighs 4 %, pounds. It is made to operate on alternating current only. Unless otherwise specified, pumps will be supplied for 110-

.1 5 BRABIC

.30 BRABID

115 volt current. Each, postpaid ____ ____________________________________ $15.00 BRABAB Marco Air Pump. Model B. A h eavier pump for 24 or more releasers. Each, postpaid ___________________________ ___ ___ ___________ 20.00 BRABAD Marco Air Pump. Model B-2. A h eavy duty pump with two cylinders, for 36 or more releasers ___________________ __ _____________ __ _ _ Stone Air Breaker. Disk only. Each, postpaid _____ ___ . __ ________ _

25.00 BRABAF .25 BRABAG .20 BRABAK Rubber Air Breaker Holder. Each, postpaid __ ______ . ___ . ______ . ___ __ _

Celluloid Stem for Air Breaker. 16" tube which may be bent when cold to any desired position. Each ___________________ _ ~elluloid Stem. 64" tube. Each, postpaid ___________________ ______ _ Marco Air Releaser, Complete. Stone air breaker, rubber

.15 BRABAL

.60 BRABAM

holder, and 16" stem assembly. Each, postpaid___ __ ___________ .50 BRABAN Dozen, postpaid_____ __ __ ________________________ ________ ___ __ ______________________ 3.50 BRABAP Rubber Air Tubing. Quarter-inch outside diameter, eighth­inch inside diameter, not dusted inside. P er foot, postpaid Marco Air Line Filter. A filter designed to remove dust and oil from the air line and prevent choking valves and releasers. Each, postpaid ________ __ _____ ___ _____ ______________ ____ ____ ____ __ _ Marco Air Valves. Valves which will h old their adjust­ment for long periods. Each valve with two or three con-nections for rubber tubing. Made in 5 styles. For small assemblies, style 1, with three tube connections is most useful. Each, postpaid ___ ________ _________________ ___ _________ ___________ ______ _

.05 BRABAR

.75 BRABAS

.85 BRABAT