Life In An Aquarium (1950)

[Music] you know what this strange winged creature is that's right it's a tadpole Johnny found it in a pond near his home and brought a tool Miss Jones explains to the class that the little tadpole will gradually change its shape and Sunday will become a full-grown frog in other words a tadpole is a baby frog tadpoles live underwater eating and breathing like fishes Jane wants to know how fishes breathe underwater and how they move about so quickly in fact all the children are anxious to learn more about animal life underwater and so they're going to set up an aquarium [Music] at last the work is done the children have covered the bottom of the aquarium with fine gravel and have filled it with clear water they have also put in some rocks and the fuel graceful water plants which makes the aquarium look more natural and more attractive now they are ready for the last step putting in the water animals that will live in the aquarium jack has brought three water snails Helen has four goldfish and fred has two more tadpoles wait a minute Fred tadpoles and goldfish don't get along very well together sometimes a hungry goldfish will bite a tadpole fred has a good idea let's put the tadpoles in a separate aquarium now the dad bulls are safe and we can still watch all these little animals and learn how they live breathing eating moving about all underwater have you ever wondered how the animals that live underwater can breathe you and I cannot breathe underwater and yet we and the fish and all living animals need the same thing when we breathe we all need oxygen oxygen is all around us in the water in the air and everywhere even though we cannot see it when you breathe in your lungs which are inside your chest fill with air from which the oxygen is taken instead of lungs to take oxygen directly from the air the way we do a fish has gills to take the oxygen from the water our fish is always opening and closing his mouth but he's not eating and he's not swallowing the water he's just taking in the water so that he can get oxygen from it the water goes through the fish's mouth to his gills his gills take out the oxygen then the water comes pouring out of the openings on both sides of his head a fish cannot breathe in the open air because his gills can take oxygen only from the water John is going to feed the goldfish goldfish should be fed not more than three times a week and each time just a tiny pinch of food is enough fish have no arms or legs but they can move about underwater with the help of their fins some of the thins help the fish to go up or down some pins help it to turn around and some help it to stay right where it is but most important of all is the fish's powerful tail that pushes him forward through the water and here are the tadpoles again in their own aquarium the tadpole has gills like the fish for taking oxygen out of the water and he has a strong tail that sends him wriggling through the water the tiny tadpole doesn't look very much like a frog right now but as he gets older many changes will take place in his size and shape he will grow legs and as his legs grow longer his tail seems to get shorter and he'll gradually lose his guilt and will grow lungs instead inside his chest when this happens he can no longer breathe underwater but must swim up to the surface in order to breathe the air above the water and so the tadpole continues to grow and a change and finally after many many weeks he's changed completely from a tadpole to a fraud while goldfish and tadpoles are good swimmers as snail cannot swim at all because he has no tail or fins all he has is one big broad foot with which he creeps on the bottom of the aquarium or on the plant this is the bottom of the snails foot as he moves slowly on the glass sides of the aquarium the snail has two long feelers that wave back and forth and help the snail find his way around as he moves slowly above the aquarium snails move so slowly that they cannot run away from their enemies instead the snail has a hard shell on his back which protects him and when frightened he pulls himself back into his shell you have learned a few things about animals that live underwater but of course there's much more to learn about many more kinds of underwater animals animals that live in ponds and lakes in rivers and in the sea meanwhile see if you can answer these questions why is a fish's mouth always opening and closing what happens to the tadpole as he gets older [Music] what kind of a suit is this man wearing and why is he wearing it [Music]