44 



require about 2 hours to consume. During the first 4 

 or 5 weeks, sucker fry can be fed in the morning, as 

 they will consume artificial food during the daylight 

 hours. Beyond this age they have a tendency to feed 

 at night and the general feeding routine shoulxl be 

 shifted to late afternoon. 



Suckers can be fed almost any type of food. The 

 protein-carbohydrate ratio can range from a 50-50 basis 

 to as high as 15 percent protein to 85 percent carbo- 

 hydrate. Some excellent foods for suckers are clam 

 meats, liver, horse meat, canned or raw fish, egg yolk, 

 wheat, corn, and oats. The food should be finely 

 ground, water added, and well mixed before feeding. 

 The amount of food consumed by a large population of 

 suckers is enormous. A stock of 100,000 3-inch fish 

 in good condition can be expected to consume more than 

 100 pounds of food per day. 



Large numbers of salable suckers will be available 

 earlier from ponds where direct feeding is practiced 

 than from ponds where no artificial feeding is con- 

 ducted. The practice of grading and sorting the stock 

 should be commenced as early as possible. 



When draining a sucker pond for complete removal 

 of fish, a few precautions must betaken. In the first 

 place, the water level should be reduced slowly to 

 allow the fish to move with the water and to prevent 

 them from getting stranded on weedy or shoal areas. 

 In the final operation, regardless of whether the fish 

 are captured by seining directly from the pond or 

 first driven into a seining basin, care should be 

 exercised toprevent roiling the water. Suckers cannot 

 tolerate waters that are excessively muddy and will 

 soon die if exposed to these conditions. As a pre- 

 cautionary measure, a small stream of fresh water should 

 be allowed to enter the pond as soon as the water be- 

 comes roily and the suckers start to show signs of 

 distress . 



THE MICHIGAN METHOD OP CREEK CHUB PROPAGATION 



The tenacity of the creek chub makes it a good 

 minnow for handling, holding, and transporting; it can 

 tolerate, to a considerable degree, exposure to sudden 

 temperature changes in water. The artificial culture 

 of this species, at present, is not an easy task. A 

 suitable spawning area (running water in a gravel- 

 bottomed stream) must be provided where natural spawn- 

 ing can occur, or the breeders must be stripped and the 



