Show FISH ALIVE consul general richard guenther of frankfort germany in the old days plain dick guenther of wis coasin writes of a report that the french naturalists billard and bry ant have made a discovery with ret arence to keeping fish ache which may be of practical importance the reported discovery concerns a tiny alga by itself not visible to the naked eye which possesses the re marl able property of preserving the water in which it exists in a state of great purity tor an almost unlimited period the little plant possesses also the advantage of multiplying rapidly and thrives in almost all 1 ands of fresh water to the naked eye the presence of these algae is noticeable through the brilliantly green color of the water provided it contains a large number of them the two scientists have succeeded in keeping brook trout alive in a large sized vessel tor six weeks so that their taste at the end of this period did not appear to be impaired in the least this Is all the more re as it is well known that otherwise brook trout can only be kept alive in running water leeches have been kept alive by the same process and one half years without change of the water experiments have already been made to make practical use of the discovery for the transportation of live fish live brook trout for instance were shipped by rail the journey colsum ing seven hours at a temperature 0 25 degrees in vessels filled with water to which these algae had been added the trout were all fresh upon arrival while others shipped at the same time in pure water not con these algae not a single trout arrived alive the explanation of this phenomenon is probably that these algae like other green plants becom pose the carbonic acid exhaled by the fish and so the water the two scientists are also of the opinion that the algae render the poison which may have been secreted in the fish harmless |