FISH.

The cultivation of fish is attracting much attention in this country and

in Europe. The study and experiments of scientific and practical men

have established important facts upon this subject. Fish may be

successfully cultivated wherever water can be conveniently obtained. The

creeks, ponds, and small rivers of our land may be well stocked with

fish. Fish may be raised as a source of profit and luxury, with as much

ease and certainty, and at a much less expense than fowls. This is so

important to the whole people, that it demands the earnest attention of

our state authorities, as it has engaged that of the government of

France. The species of fish best adapted to artificial culture, in

particular climates and in different kinds of water, have been

ascertained. A man may know what fish to put in his waters, as well as

what crops to put on his land, or what stocks on his farm.

The following brief synopsis of the best methods of cultivation will be

sufficient to insure success. The first requisite is suitable water for

hatching eggs that have been artificially fecundated, and for the

occupancy of fish of different ages, and for different species of fish.

Fish of different ages are much inclined to destroy each other for food;

and hence, in order to multiply them most rapidly, they should be kept

in separate ponds until considerably grown, when they will take care of

themselves. A spring sending forth a rivulet of clear water, and not

subject to overflow in freshets, is the best location. Clear, cool water

is essential to the trout, while some other fish will do well in warm

and even roily water. The rivulet running from the spring should be made

to form a succession of ponds, three or four in number. These ponds

should be connected with flumes made of plank. If the space they must

occupy be small, make the flumes zigzag, to increase their length. Put

across those flumes, once in four or five feet, a piece of plank half as

high as the sides of the flume, with a notch cut in the centre of the

top, that the fish may easily pass over: this will afford a succession

of little falls, in which the trout very much delights. These different

ponds are for the occupancy of fish of different ages, one age only

inhabiting one pond. The flumes should have four inches of fine and

coarse gravel in the bottom, making the most perfect spawning-ground.

Although you would not wish the female-trout to deposite her eggs in the

natural way, but will extrude them by the hand (as hereinafter

directed), yet they must have these natural conveniences, or they will

not incline to spawn at all. At the upper end of each of these flumes

separating the ponds, there should be a gate of wire-cloth, to prevent

the passage of the fish from one pond to the other; also one at the

outlet of the lower pond, to prevent egress of the fish. These must all

be so arranged that freshets will not connect them all together. When

trout are about to spawn in their natural waters, they select a gravelly

margin, and remove, from a circle of about one foot or two feet in

diameter, all the sediment, leaving only clean gravel, among which they

deposite their eggs, where they are hatched. They want running water of

three or four inches in depth for this purpose. A male and female occupy

each nest. If left to themselves, they will gradually increase; but so

many of their eggs fail of being fecundated, and so many are destroyed

before they hatch, by enemies, and by the collection of sediment in the

nest, that the number of young fish is small compared with the whole

number of eggs deposited. Artificial spawning, fecundation, and

hatching, are far more productive. The process is simple and easy: when

the female-fish first begins to deposite her eggs, catch her with a

small net. It can not be done with bait, for fish will bite nothing at

the time of spawning. We recollect, often when a boy, of trying to catch

trout out of the brooks in October, where we could see large, beautiful

fish, lying lazily in the places from which we had caught many in the

summer, and put our bait carefully on every side of them, and they would

not bite. Then we knew not the cause: since studying the habits of fish,

we have learned that they never will bite while spawning; with trout,

this is done from the 1st to the 15th of October, some few spawning till

the last of November. Having caught two fish, male and female, take the

female in one hand, and press her abdomen gently with the other hand,

gradually moving it downward, and the eggs will be easily extruded, and

should fall into an earthen vessel of pure water. Then take the

male-fish, and go through the same process, which will press out the

spermatic fluid, which should be allowed to fall into the same vessel

with the eggs; stir up the whole together, and, after it has stood

fifteen minutes, pour off the water, put in more and stir it up, and let

it stand as before. This having been done three times, the eggs will be

thoroughly fecundated, and are ready to be deposited in the nests for

hatching. If the fish are caught before the time of beginning to spawn,

the eggs and the spermatic fluid will not be mature, and will be only

extruded by hard pressing, and failing to be fecundated, the eggs will

perish. The fluid from one male will fecundate the eggs of half a dozen

females. These eggs may be hatched in the flumes described above, though

hatching-boxes are preferable. The old fish can be returned to the

water, and may live many years and produce thousands of fish. These

fish, carefully treated and fed, will become so tame as to eat out of

your hand, like the "Naiad Queen" of Professors Ackley and Garlick, of

Cleveland, Ohio. Among all the hatching apparatus we have seen

described, we regard that of the above professors at Cleveland the best.

To these gentlemen the country is much indebted for the knowledge

derived from their zeal and success in fish culture. At the head of a

spring they built a house eight by twelve feet; in the end of the house

toward the spring they made a tank four feet wide, eight feet long, and

two feet deep; this was made of plank. Water enters the tank through a

hole near the top, and escapes through a similar one at the other end,

and is received into a series of ten successive boxes, each one a little

lower than the preceding one. These boxes were eighteen inches long,

eight inches wide, and six inches deep. These were filled to the depth

of two inches with clean sand and gravel. The impregnated eggs were

scattered among the gravel, care being exercised not to have them in

piles or masses. Clean water is necessary, as the sediment deposited by

impure water is very destructive to the eggs. If it be seen to be

collecting, it should be removed by agitating the water with a

goose-quill or soft brush, and allowing it to run off; continue this

till it runs clear. But there is a method of preventing impurities in

spring-water, that will be always effectual: just around on the upper

side of the spring make a tight fence two feet high, and it will turn

aside, and cause to run around the spring, all the water that may flow

down the rise above in time of rains. The house being near the head,

there will not water enough get into the spring, in any storm, to roil

the water. On the side of the boxes where the water escapes should be

wire-cloth, so fine as not to allow the eggs to pass through. Such an

apparatus will be perfect. This great care is only necessary for trout.

All other fish worthy of cultivation, will only need spawning-beds on

the margin of their pond. A convenient hatching apparatus is a number of

wicker-baskets, fine enough not to allow the eggs to pass through, set

in a flume of clear running water.

The method of Gehen and Remy, the great fish-cultivators of France,

whose efforts and discoveries have contributed more to this science than

those of any, if not of all other men, was to place the eggs in

zinc-boxes of about one foot in diameter, having a lid over them--the

top and sides of the boxes pierced with small holes, smooth on the

inside; these boxes were partly filled with clean sand and gravel, and

set in clear running water. M. Costa's method, at the college of France,

is to arrange boxes in the form of steps, the top one being supplied

with water by a fountain, and that passing from one to the other through

all the series, and the eggs placed on willow-hurdles instead of gravel.

Another very simple method may be arranged in the house. It is a

reservoir--a barrel or cask--set perhaps two and a half feet from the

floor, and a little hatching trough a few inches lower, into which water

gradually runs through a faucet, from the reservoir. This water running

through the hatching-box, escapes into a tub a little below. Whatever

plan be adopted, great care is necessary in preventing sediment from

depositing. Cleanliness is a principal condition of success. The eggs of

the trout thus fecundated and deposited in October or November will

hatch in the spring. Young trout need no feeding for a month after

leaving the egg. There is a small bladder or vesicle under the fore part

of the body, when they first come out, from which they derive their

sustenance. After this disappears, or at the end of about a month, they

should be fed, in very small quantities. Too much will leave a portion

to decay on the bottom and injure the water. The best possible food

(except the angle-worm) is lean flesh of animals, boiled and hashed fine

for the young fish. The flesh of other kinds of fish, when they are

plenty and not very valuable, would be very good. These young fish

should be kept in the first pond until a year old. Then let them into

the second pond, closing the gate after them, to make room for another

brood in the first pond. The next year let them into the third, and

those into the second that are now in the first, and so on till the

fourth. In the last pond, those of different ages will all be large

enough to take care of themselves. But sometimes a trout two years old

is said to swallow one a year old. But when they get to be three or four

years old, this sort of cannibalism ceases. These principles can be

carried out in small streams, by constructing gates to keep sections

separate, and by forming banks and waste ways for water, with wire gates

so high, that the water will not overflow in freshets, and carry the

fish away. In taking trout use angle-worms or the fly. A fine

light-colored small line is best. They are very shy. The following is a

list of other fish, beside the trout, that are well worthy of

cultivation:--

_Black Bass._--When full grown, this fish is from twelve to eighteen

inches in length. One of the better fish for the table, and profitable

to raise in a pond covering not less than half an acre. Chub, being a

very prolific little fish, may be kept in the same pond as food for the

black bass and other large fish. They are very fond of them. Minnows are

the best bait for these fish, though they will bite a trolling hook of

any ordinary kind. You may raise them as given for the trout above, or

allow them to deposite their eggs in spawn beds of their own selection

in their pond. They will do well in water less pure than is demanded for

the trout.

_White Bass._--Not so large as the black bass. Seldom weighs more than

two pounds. One of the best for food. Thrives well in small ponds.

Requires the same treatment as the preceding. Spawns in May and hatches

soon. Easily caught, as he is a great biter, at almost any bait.

_Grass Bass or Roach._--One of the most beautiful of the bass kind, and

as a panfish highly esteemed. It prefers sluggish water, and hence is

well adapted to small artificial ponds. Spawns in May. May be treated as

the preceding. Bites the angle-worm well, and several other kinds of

bait.

_Rock Bass._--A small fish seldom reaching a pound in weight, but is

fine and very easily raised in small ponds of any kind of water. Spawns

in May and may be treated in all respects as the rest of the bass

family, only it will flourish well in quite small ponds.

_Pickerel._--Is one of the best of fish, weighs from three to fifteen

pounds. Suitable only for large ponds. Spawns early in the spring in the

marshy edges of sluggish water. The eggs may be procured and treated as

the trout, only cold running water is not necessary. Best caught by

trolling. It is not a good fish to raise with others, as it is apt to

eat them up.

_Yellow Perch._--Is everywhere well known as a beautiful little

fresh-water fish, and good for the table, at all seasons when the water

is cool. Perfectly hardy and adapted to sluggish waters, it is one of

the best for artificial ponds. Treat like all the preceding; or allowed

to take its own course in the pond, it will increase rapidly.

_Sun-Fish._--Rarely weighs more than half a pound, but is a good

pan-fish. This and the grass bass and yellow perch may be put together

in the same pond.

_Eels._--May be cultivated with great success in almost any water. But

we are so prejudiced against them, never consenting to taste one, that

we can not speak in their favor. Of the methods of introducing fish into

our rivers and creeks, from which they have nearly all been taken by the

fishermen, it is not our design to treat. That subject may be found

fully presented in treatises on fish culture, and should command the

immediate attention of the authorities in all the states.

We have here given all that is necessary to success among the masses all

over the land. There is hardly a township in the United States or

British provinces, where good fish-ponds might not be constructed so as

to be a source of profit and luxury to the inhabitants.

Fish are so certainly and easily raised, that the practice of

cultivating them should be universally adopted.

Transporting fish alive is somewhat hazardous, especially if they be of

considerable size. The difficulty is greatly lessened by keeping ice in

the water with the fish. Change water twice a day and keep ice in it,

and you may safely transport fish around the globe. Eggs of fish are

best transported in boxes six inches square, filled with alternate

layers of sand and eggs scattered over. When full, make quite wet, and

fasten on the cover. Other methods are adopted which will be easily

learned of those engaged in the trade.