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Preliminary Experiments on the Rearing of 

 Sea -Fish Larvae. 



By 

 Walter Garstang. 



The present paper contains an account of experiments made at the 

 Plymouth Laboratory in the summer of 1899 with the object of 

 determining the conditions necessary for the artificial rearing of sea- 

 fish larvre through the critical stages of their development. As is 

 well known, the majority of the attempts which have hitherto been 

 made in this direction have proved abortive, and such success as has 

 been obtained has been limited to the survival of a very small pro- 

 portion of the original stock of fry. There was therefore ample scope 

 for new work upon the subject, especially for experiments based on 

 comparative methods which should aim more particularly to elucidate 

 the habits of fish larvse under clearly contrasted conditions. In this 

 way only did it appear possible to make further progress in our know- 

 ledge of the physiological peculiarities of the delicate fry and of the 

 conditions which are essential to their healthy development in confine- 

 ment. The successful issue of the present experiments is entirely 

 attributable, I think, to the fact that they were not undertaken until 

 practically undivided attention could be given to them, which enabled 

 me to watch long and closely the habits of individual larvae under 

 different conditions, and under the guidance of these observations to 

 modify and perfect the simple apparatus employed until the mortality 

 became reduced to reasonable proportions. 



The only records of successful experiments in the rearing of sea-fish 

 larvae are those of Dr. H. A. Meyer in 1878 with the Baltic herring, of 

 Captain Dannevig in 1886 with the cod in Norway, and of Mr. Harald 

 Dannevig in 1896 with the plaice at Dunbar. 



Dr. Meyer* reared a number of larvas of the Baltic winter herring 

 from eggs which had been artificially fertilised on the Schlei Iliver. 

 The larvae were confined in a large tub containing water from the Bay 



• Biologischc Beobachtunfjcn bei kunstlicher Aufzucht dcs Hcrings dcr Wcstlichen Ostsee. 

 Berlin, 1878. (Translated in Report U.S. Fish Commission for 1878, pp. 629-38.) 



