Everything should now be ready for the reception of the ova. The rearing boxes are resting upon stones placed at the bottom of the ponds, with the edges some six inches above the level of the water, and moored to the sides to prevent their being moved by the current. The hatching trays are suspended in the rearing boxes, or placed upon movable rests in the boxes, with their edges just above the level of the water.

Notice is usually sent a day or two before the ova are despatched from fish cultural establishments, so the amateur has no excuse for not being absolutely ready for their reception. They are packed in various ways, and nowadays suffer but little in the transit. The ova should always be carefully washed before they are placed in the hatching trays. Mr.

Armistead, in _A Handy Guide to Fish Culture_, says:--"If just turned out of a packing case there may be small pieces of moss or other material amongst them. In any case a wash will do them no harm, and the process is a very simple one. Take a pail, half-filled with ova, and then fill up with water, and with a small lading-can lift some of the water out, and pour it back again, so as to cause a downward current, which will agitate the ova. Their specific gravity being greater than that of water, they immediately retire again to the bottom of the pail, and by at once pouring off as much water as is practicable, any floating particles of moss, etc., may be carried off. Should any be left, the process should be repeated, and it may even be necessary to repeat it several times. When all is right take a ladle, or small vessel of some kind, say a good-sized tea-cup, and gently ladle out the eggs, and place them roughly on the grills, where they may be roughly spread by means of a feather."

To these instructions I would add some for the amateur, who will probably deal with a comparatively small number of ova. The ova should be washed in some large vessel full of water in the manner above described. When the water is quite clear, and the ova clean, they may be caught in mid-water as they are sinking either in the hatching trays or in a cup. If caught in a cup they should be transferred with great care to the hatching trays, and spread out in a single and somewhat spare layer. They must on no account be poured into the trays from a height.

While under water well-eyed ova will stand a good deal of gentle tumbling about, but if dropped into the water from even a little height the concussion is likely to kill them.

Mr. Armistead recommends gla.s.s grills rather than trays such as I have described, but I have found the trays work very well, and they are very simple and clean. Gla.s.s grills are, however, very excellent, though they necessitate a somewhat greater initial outlay than do the perforated zinc trays.

A German fish culturist has recently recommended keeping a stock of fresh-water shrimps (_Gammarus pulex_) in the hatching trays and rearing boxes. He says that the shrimps eat only the dead ova, and never touch the living ones. They also eat any vegetable or animal _debris_. I have never tried the experiment myself, and so cannot speak from experience.

Dead ova should be always removed at once, and the hatching trays should be gone over carefully once or twice a day to see if any are present in them. Dead ova are easily recognized from the fact that they become opaque and white. They are best removed with a gla.s.s tube. The thumb is placed over one end of the tube, and the other end brought directly over the dead ovum. When the thumb is removed from the end of the tube held in the hand the water will rush up into the tube, carrying with it the dead ovum. The thumb is then replaced over the end of the tube, which is lifted from the water with the ovum retained in it. This tube may also be used for removing any extraneous bodies which may get into the trays or boxes.

A form of fungus known as _Byssus_ grows upon dead ova, and it is princ.i.p.ally for this reason that they must be removed. Livingstone Stone says of _Byssus_:--"With trout eggs in water at 40 or 50 Fahrenheit, it generally appears within forty-eight hours after the egg turns white, and often sooner, and the warmer the water the quicker it comes. It is never quite safe to leave the dead eggs over twenty-four hours in the hatching boxes. The peculiarity of _Byssus_ is that it stretches out its long, slender arms, which grow rapidly over everything within its reach.

This makes it peculiarly mischievous, for it will sometimes clasp a dozen or even twenty eggs in its Briarean grasp before it is discovered, and any egg that it has seized has received its death warrant." Mr.

Armistead has known it appear within twenty-four hours. _Byssus_ develops only on dead ova.

_Saprolegnia_, known to fish culturists as "fungus," attacks both living or dead ova. If the woodwork is properly varnished or charred, and the ova managed thoroughly, there should, however, be but little risk of fungus. Light is favourable to the growth of fungus, and, therefore, wooden lids should be placed over the rearing boxes. These should be kept partially on after the young fish have hatched out, and be replaced by covers of fine wire netting spread on closely-fitting frames, when the fry have begun to feed. These obviate the necessity of covering up the ponds during the first stages.

Many small creatures such as caddis-worms will eat the ova, and therefore a careful watch should be kept upon the hatching trays as it is marvellous how such creatures find their way in, in spite of all precautions. Birds of several kinds are also likely to cause great damage unless the ova and young fish are carefully guarded from their depredations.

In a short time, probably within a few days of receiving the ova, the amateur will find that the young fish are beginning to hatch out. They generally come out tail first, and in wriggling this about in their attempts to get further out, they propel the ovum about the bottom of the tray. When the little fish attempts to come out head first, he sometimes gets into difficulties and if this is observed, he may be helped by a gentle touch with a feather or a camel's hair brush.

When first hatched out the young fish have a large translucent protuberance on the under-surface. This is the umbilical or yolk-sac, and contains the nourishment upon which the little fish lives during the first stage of its life after it is hatched. This sac is gradually absorbed but until it is absorbed the young fish are called "alevins."

At first the little fish do not require any food, but they generally begin to feed in about six weeks, and before the yolk-sac is completely absorbed. The rearing boxes should be kept partly covered, and the alevins will crowd into a pack in the darker parts at the bottom of the hatching tray.

The sh.e.l.ls of the ova must be removed from the hatching trays. As they are lighter than the alevins, the current will generally carry them to the lower end of the tray, whence they may be removed with a piece of gauze spread on a wire ring, or by raising and lowering the tray gently in the water in alternately slanting directions.

The alevin stage is the stage in which the least mortality should be expected, and the little fish give but little trouble. There are, however, several diseases besides fungus (of which I have spoken already when dealing with the ova) from which the alevins may suffer.

I was, I believe, the first to describe (in the "Rainbow Trout") a peculiar disease from which alevins suffered. When hatched out and kept in water containing a very large quant.i.ty of air in solution, I found that sometimes alevins developed an air bubble in the yolk-sac. On developing this bubble they are unable to stay at the bottom as they usually do, but swim about on their backs at the surface, with part of the yolk-sac out of the water. An effectual cure for this is to put the affected alevins into still water for about thirty-six hours. I have observed this affection in the alevins of the rainbow trout (_Salmo irideus_), the common trout (_S. fario_) and the Quinnat or Californian Salmon (_Onchorynchus conicha_).

"Blue Swelling" of the yolk-sac is another disease from which alevins sometimes suffer, but I have never heard of any cure for this. Another, "paralysis," may be caused by lack of sufficient current and by insufficient aeration of the water. Sickly alevins will, as a rule, drop out of the pack, and lie on the bottom or against the end of the hatching tray, where they are carried by the current.

Dead alevins should be removed at once, and for this reason it is necessary that the hatching trays should be examined at least once a day.

CHAPTER VII

TROUT. MANAGEMENT OF THE FRY

A greatly varying period of time having elapsed and the yolk-sacs of the alevins being nearly absorbed, the fish culturist will see that some of the little fish begin to leave the pack at the bottom of the tray, and to swim up against the current. When this is observed some very finely divided food should be offered to these alevins. They will probably dart at the minute pieces of food floating past and a little more may then be given to them. If, however, they do not take any notice of little pieces of food or any other matter which floats past them, they should not be tried again till the next day. In a few days from the first of the alevins beginning to feed, all of them will be working up with their heads to the current, darting at any particles floating in the water.

The tray should now be lowered so that its edge is some three or four inches below the surface and the little fish allowed to swim out into the box.

As soon as the yolk-sacs of the alevins are absorbed the little fish cease to be alevins, and are called "fry."

The alevin stage was that in which the fish give least trouble, the stage I am now describing is that in which they give most. They must be fed frequently--at least four times a day. "Little and often" is the maxim which should rule the actions of the fish culturist with regard to feeding the fry. If he can only feed his fish four times a day, he must spend some time on each of these four occasions. The food must not be thrown in all at once. If this be done the little fish will not get half of it; the other half will sink to the bottom.

The food should be introduced in small quant.i.ties at a time, and if the amateur has several boxes he should put a little food into each in succession, coming back to the first when he has put some into the last, repeating this operation at least half a dozen times. The less he puts in at each time, and the oftener he does it, the better. The ideal plan would be to put a very small quant.i.ty of food in each time, and to go on doing this at intervals of from five to ten minutes all day.

Livingstone Stone says, "You need not be afraid of the young fry's eating too much." And again, "I never knew any healthy young fry of mine decline eating but once, and then I had fed them incessantly for two hours, at the end of which time they gave up, beaten." Personally, I have found no limit to the time that the fry will continue feeding. I have kept on putting small quant.i.ties of food into a rearing box for a whole afternoon, and I was tired of feeding before the fry were tired of eating. My reader will infer from this that I believe that the fry cannot be over-fed, and this is to a certain extent true. If finely divided food is given in such small quant.i.ties that practically none of it sinks to the bottom without their having a fair chance at it, I believe that in a box containing only a couple of thousand fry, it would be found that they never stopped feeding during the whole day. If, however, too large pieces of food are offered to the little fish, many of them are likely to be choked and to die, from trying to swallow a piece a little too big for them.

The amateur will observe that shortly after the fry have been let out into the box and are feeding freely, they will separate into two more or less distinct groups. One at the upper end where the current comes in and is strongest, and one at the lower end. The fish at the upper end are the strongest and largest. This difference becomes more marked as time goes on, and in six or eight weeks after they have begun to feed the larger fish will be almost double the size of the smaller. In the middle of April, if many fry are in each box, they should be thinned out, and other boxes brought into use. The smaller fish may then be taken from one or two boxes and put into another by themselves. In feeding care should be taken that the small and weakly fish get a fair share of the food.

No matter how carefully the feeding is managed, some of the food is sure to escape the young fish and sink to the bottom. This, if left as it is, will decay and cause great mischief. A very simple and easily applied remedy for this evil exists in the use of mould dissolved in the water.

Livingstone Stone recommends the mould under a sod, and I have always used this with the most beneficial effect. Earth, besides covering up and deodorizing the decomposing food at the bottom, also contains some materials which are apparently necessary to the well-being of trout. To quote again from Livingstone Stone, who was the discoverer of this use of mould: "Earth or mud is the last thing one would suppose suitable for a fish so a.s.sociated in our minds with pure, clean water; yet it is an indispensable const.i.tuent in the diet of young trout, and unless they get it, either naturally or artificially, they will not thrive."

The effect of earth given in this way upon the young fish is simply marvellous. They become more lively and feed more freely. This is the effect of a spate--which is, after all, only a dose of earth--upon wild trout.

The mould should be mixed with water in a bucket, and, when the water is very thick and muddy, poured into the rearing boxes. The water in the rearing boxes should be so thick that neither the bottom nor the young fish, except when they come to the surface to take some pa.s.sing particle of food, can be seen. The amateur should not wait till something goes wrong before giving this dose of earth; it is advisable to give it once a week at any rate, and oftener if the fish seem to be ailing in any way.

In dealing with the subject of food for the young fish, I would begin by impressing upon my reader that the greater variety of food he can give the better it will be for the fish. He should also give them, at any rate after they have been feeding some weeks, a certain proportion of natural food. Probably the best of all food for the fry is pounded shrimps or other crustaceans. It is, however, difficult in the very early stages of the trout's life to pound shrimps up small enough, and the little fish are much given to trying to swallow pieces of food which are too large for them to manage. This evil proclivity often causes the death of the fry, and therefore great care must be taken that no pieces of food which are too large, get into the rearing box. Pounded liver shaken up in a bottle with water, and after the larger particles have been allowed to settle at the bottom, poured into the rearing box in small quant.i.ties, is a good form of food for the alevins when they first begin to feed. The yolks of eggs boiled for about half an hour and pounded up, dog biscuit very finely pounded, or the fine food supplied by several of the fish cultural establishments are also excellent. In giving moist food such as pounded shrimps, liver, meat, or the yolks of eggs, a good plan while the fry are very small is to put the food in a small net made of fine muslin mounted on a wire ring, and dipping the end of this net into the water, allow small particles to escape through the muslin. This ensures no large pieces getting into the rearing boxes.

As the fry grow larger, these precautions are of course modified, as the little fish are capable of swallowing larger pieces of food.

With regard to natural food, the amateur should take care to ensure a good stock for the young fish. Many of the creatures suitable for food may be cultivated in separate ponds at the same time as the fish, if a natural supply is not at hand. The _Daphnia pulex_ (water flea) and the _Cyclops quadricornis_ may be introduced into the boxes very soon after the fish have began to feed. _Daphnia_ breeds at the rate which is almost inconceivable. The female produces her first brood of young when she is ten days old, and goes on breeding at an average of three or four times a month. The female and her progeny are rendered fertile by one act of coition, probably for fifteen generations at least, without any further intervention of the male. Both _Daphnia_ and _Cyclops_ are bred in stagnant water in which there should be a good stock of weeds.

The fresh water shrimp (_Gammarus pulex_) is an excellent form of food for young and old trout, and should be given to the fry as soon as they are old enough to manage them. _Corixae_ and other small insects should also be given as often as possible. The fresh-water shrimp is bred in running water, _Corixae_ in still or slow running water. Weeds are necessary to the well-being of both.

The boxes must be kept carefully covered, as I have already pointed out.

A kingfisher would make short work of a box of fry, and other birds and beasts of various kinds are partial to them. There are only two courses open to the fish culturist in dealing with these enemies--to protect his fish or kill the enemies. I prefer to protect the fish first and kill the enemies afterwards.

The greatest care must be taken not to introduce, or allow to intrude, any water beetles or the larger carnivorous aquatic larvae of insects, into the rearing boxes. I have known cases where the larvae of the _Dytiscus marginalis_, the largest of our carnivorous water beetles, have destroyed almost all the fry in a rearing pond. The adult _D.

marginalis_ itself is not a whit less voracious, and much stronger than its larva.

If the wooden parts of the apparatus have been properly prepared, according to my previous instructions, there should be no risk of the fry developing fungus. Quite a small spot of woodwork, however, left uncovered by asphalt-varnish, or enamel, or uncharred, will render the chance of the development of this disease probable.

Should by any misfortune fungus get into the rearing boxes, a dose of salt may very likely cure it. Sea water is the best, but if this is not obtainable, a solution of salt and water run through the boxes will probably cure the disease. Considerable good may also be done to the young fish by occasionally putting a lump of rock salt in at the inlet, and the water allowed to run over and dissolve it.

CHAPTER VIII

TROUT. THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FRY (_Continued_)

In the last chapter I brought my reader up to the point where the fry, which had been feeding for some time in the rearing boxes, had been judiciously separated, the weaker and smaller fish which took up their positions at the lower ends of the boxes having been put into separate boxes and induced as much as possible to keep at the head near to where the current enters.

It is difficult to lay down any certain rule as to what is the best time at which to take the next step--that of turning the fry out into the rearing ponds. When the fry have got into more or less regular habits, and showing no fear of whoever it is who feeds them, come up readily and seize the food boldly, is probably the best time to let them out into the larger s.p.a.ce of the pond. I do not mean to say that when a certain proportion of the fish have got over their natural shyness, and feed boldly and without hesitation, the whole of them should be set free.

What I mean is, that when the habit of a.s.sociating the appearance of a certain individual with a meal has been well established among them for a week or so, they should be allowed to escape from the box into the pond.

This is best done in the same way that the alevins were allowed to escape from the hatching tray into the box--by lowering the level of the box so that its upper edges are some two or three inches below the surface of the water. The food should now be thrown into the pond higher up, so that the little fish may be induced to swim up and station themselves as near the inlet as possible. Probably some of the little fish will not leave the box at all of their own free will. These, of course, will have to be turned out. The box should not, however, be lifted out of the water and the fish and water together be poured out, as this is very likely to cause them severe injury. The box should be gradually tilted over and lifted out of the water bottom first, so that the fish are hardly disturbed at all and certainly not injured in any way.

An important matter to consider before turning the little fish out into the pond is, how the ponds are to be protected so that their many enemies may be kept away from the fry. Kingfishers, herons, and other creatures are very partial to young trout and will cause enormous destruction if not prevented. Kingfishers have, in my experience, been the worst offenders. Some years ago I was rearing some trout in a part of the country where many of the inhabitants bewailed the extermination of the kingfisher. Before I began rearing trout I agreed with these people, for a kingfisher flitting along a stream looking like a little ma.s.s of jewels is a pleasing sight, and one which I had never enjoyed in that particular part of the country.