The natural history and cultivation of the sole / by W. Houghton.

  • Houghton, W. (William), 1829?-1897.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history and cultivation of the sole / by W. Houghton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    An examination shows what a fish has fed upon at the time it has been caught; it is quite probable that, were it possible to extend observations, various other kinds of food would be found in the soles’ stomachs, sometimes of a kind that one would hardly expect. A sole may have a predilection for one kind of food more than for another, but food of some kind it must have, and therefore soles’ food must depend hpon the locality in which they are found, and the choice of locality is not always within the fish’s own power, on account of temperature, currents, or other causes. An important point which bears upon the artificial cul- tivation of the sole is its undoubted tenacity of life. I have taken soles of about four to six inches in length from a shrimper’s net, have put them with a lot of other small fishes, as dabs, flounders, &c., in a collecting can, taken them home as they were, and set them in a cool place ; whilst most of the other little fishes were dead, the soles were alive, after having been out of the water for twenty hours ; and this tenacity of life is corroborated by fishermen who collect specimens for our aquaria. Soles do well in an aquarium, and there is no difficulty in getting them safely there. Why one fish should be tenacious of life, and another of the same family, and even of the same genus, should prove to be quite the reverse, is a fact difficult of solution. A closely allied species of the Solea vulgaris, for instance, the S', minuta, “ solenette ” or “ little sole,” soon dies in confinement, tWhile out in a shrimping boat off Southport in April of the present year, collecting specimens for the aquarium, we caught a great number of “ solenettes,” but the fisherman said “ they were no good,” because they would not live in confinement many days, and this was confirmed in the case of those I brought home, for not a single individual survived.
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