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Show NATIONAL AQUARIUM 1,500 Species of Marine Life Housed by National Acquarium WNTJ Washington Bureau The National Aquarium in Washington, Wash-ington, although housed in the Department De-partment of Commerce building, has been operated by the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department Depart-ment of Interior since 1940. In that year, the service was created by the consolidation of the Bureau of Fisheries of Commerce and the Bureau of Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture. The original aquarium, established estab-lished in 1888 by the former U.S. Fish Commission, occupied an old pre-Civil War building in another part of the city. When the present Commerce building was built in 1932, the fish were moved to the new and larger aquarium under the main lobby, but operation continues contin-ues by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The present aquarium occupies a floor space of about 14,000 square feet, and has 50 tanks which hold about 30,000 gallons of water. The water is changed on an average of three times a day. Since the aquarium aquar-ium is situated below the sewer level, the water is drained into underground reservoirs which must, in turn be pumped out, an expensive operation. The heavily chlorinated city water supply, which the aquarium uses, is a constant problem because chlorine would mean overnight death to the fish. All the water used must therefore pass through carbon car-bon filters. Temperature control must also be watched carefully. The hot Washington summers require re-quire complete refrigeration of the tanks of northern fishes, and the warm water of the tropics must be duplicated in those tanks which have fish accustomed to that climate. cli-mate. The aquarium now houses 1500 individual kinds of fish of which the rarest is a collection of albino catfish the only such collection now in this country. Another great attraction to the 250,000 visitors each year is Siamese Sue, a tiny turtle with one body but two heads. Sue is a perfect example of turtle frustration. Each brain controls the set of legs on its side so that indecision as to whether she's going to move or stay still Is a major factor in Sue's life. Each head must be fed simultaneously simultane-ously or the other one will try to grab the food. Sue has grown from the size of a quarter to about the size of a silver dollar in the two years that she's been at the aquarium. aquar-ium. A two-headed turtle usually lives only a few months. THE NATIONAL Aquarium seeks primarily to maintain an attractive display of the principal fresh-water game fishes which are propagated and distributed throughout interior waters of the country, John C. Pearson, director of the aquarium, says. Reactions of aquarium spectators specta-tors are watched as carefully as the behavior of the fishes themselves. them-selves. It has been noticed that women like the fancy Oriental goldfish, gold-fish, the black Chinese Moors, and the multi-colored Shubunkins. Men seem to prefer the rainbow and brook trout while Siamese Sue remains re-mains the favorite of most children. chil-dren. The most generally liked attraction, at-traction, however, is the shallow pool filled with turtles of all varieties. vari-eties. Future improvements to the aquarium call for better lighting effects in the display tanks. They are all electrically lighted now with the surrounding area iept just a bit darker so as to better show off the displays. More naturalistic backgrounds for the exhibits is another aim. Real moss grows in the tanks, but most of the greenery green-ery used is bamboo because it retains re-tains its color under water for a longer period than most other types of greens. Aquarium officials also hope for a more complete display dis-play of native food and game fish so well appreciated by many millions mil-lions of American fishermen. The attendents are occasionally offered bribes by thoughtful visitors vis-itors who want to take a fancy goldfish home to the children. A "gem collector" once offered $5 for a pearl-bearing oyster from Hawaii. As Mr. Pearson says, a good motto for any aquarium management man-agement is: "If it fits into a pocket, keep it locked up." |