SOME IMPORTANT BAIT FISHES 



shows the rate of growth of young 

 suckers in ponds: 



Sucker pond production is usu- 

 ally expressed in pounds and 

 wholesale sales are usually in gal- 

 lons. The following table presents 

 the number of suckers of various 

 sizes per pound and per gallon: 



' 1 gallon equals 8 pounds. 



Stocking the ponds with fry 



While it is important for the op- 

 erator to know how many fry per 

 acre to stock in each pond, there 

 is little exact information on the 

 subject. Some years ago the Min- 

 nesota Bureau of Fisheries set an 

 arbitrary figure of 40,000 fry per 

 acre, because that was a fair divi- 

 sion of the fry available for dis- 



tribution. Experience has since 

 shown that this stocking rate is 

 satisfactory. Recent studies indi- 

 cate that certain ponds tend to 

 produce only so many fish no mat- 

 ter how many are stocked. Of 

 course, understocking produces 

 fewer fish, but overstocking wastes 

 fry. If the supply of fry is lim- 

 ited, the dealer should experiment 

 until he knows the optimum stock- 

 ing rate for each of his ponds. 

 For example, when a Minnesota 

 pond was stocked with 69,000 fry 

 to the acre of water, the survival 

 was 17 percent; when 51,000 fry 

 were stocked the survival rate in- 

 creased to 27 percent; and when 

 37,000 fry were stocked the sur- 

 vival reached a peak of 40 percent. 

 The number of fish produced per 

 acre during the 3 years was 12,000, 

 14,000, and 15,000 fish of pike-bait 

 size. The survival rate for suck- 

 ers in all Minnesota ponds under 

 observation during these 3 years 

 averaged 22 percent and reached a 

 high of 50 percent. 



Dealeis who are confronted with 

 seasonal markets which require 

 fish of acceptable size may find 

 that it is not advisable to produce 

 the maximum number of suckers 

 in a pond. Studies of natural 

 sucker ponds in Minnesota have 

 shown a very definite relation be- 

 tween the number of fish produced 

 in a pond and the size the fish will 

 be in 60 days. As the number 

 ]>roduced in the pond is depend- 

 ent on the number of fry stocked, 

 the dealer must decide before 

 stocking time the size of fish he 



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