TEXTBOOK OF POND CULTURE 



Preface 



Pond culture during the last decade has been developed more and more into an 

 Independent and important industrial branch of national economy. Its development at 

 the same tijne led to a sharper division into two main fields: carp pond culture and 

 trout culture. In spite of this the science of the entire pond industry, inclusive of 

 artificial fish-culture as contained in this b^^ok, has remained eqvially important for 

 the instruction of both the carp pond culturist and the trout grower. It will be useful 

 for each of them to use the experiences of the other and to draw comparisons. General 

 principles in both industrial branches are largely the same, also transitions in practice 

 repeatedly erase the division to again form a whole: the pond industry in a larger sense. 

 It has become self-evident today that the small pond culturist, who is concerned only with 

 the maintenance of fish, informs himself about the breeding of his fish, and that the lake 

 and stream fishermen will repeatedly learn from the pond culture industry. 



All expedients for the advancement of the pond industry and for lowering production 

 costs, such as the care and treatment, of ponds, fish feeding, precautions for avoiding 

 fish losses and fish diseases are more effectively and successfully applied by the care- 

 ful consideration of the given environmental requirements of the pon3 fish, their 

 nutritional demands, the regulations of natural food production in the pond, and the 

 peculiarity of the fish diseases. I have therefore placed at the beginning of this 

 textbook, the "Biological Principles of Production" which influence more than anything 

 else the industrial procedures of the pond industry. The opposite pole is formed by the 

 treatises on fish enemies and fish diseases which not less strongly oppose industrial 

 success and management. In spite of this, each division of the book is complete and 

 comprehensive in itself and independent of the others. 



The beginner will at once obtain a deeper insight into the practical aims and 

 methods by this manner of presentation. The marginal chapters with their discussions 

 on pond management and fish feeding will provide especially valuable and entirely 

 reliable principles for new improvement methods for experienced directors of pond 

 culture industries. 



The sections dealing with the actual rearing and behavior of carp, trout and their 

 relatives have been adapted to the natural arrangement of the subject, by ■which a very 

 definite form of textbook-like -presentation was obtained. L have set myself the task of 

 always placing the importance of recent pond culture practice in the foreground. The 

 accomplishment of this task v;as therefore made easier for me because in the last decade 

 several industrial methods have crystallized out of an abundance and have become generally 

 accepted. The illustrations of the book, since they are intended to illustrate the modem 

 status of pond industry, have been for the greater part newly drawn by me and adopted in 

 practice. 



Naturally no textbook can be complete or final. Although I have repeatedly entered 

 into the regional differentiations, there certainly will be cases in which the previous 

 rule of the locality requires departure from the established basic industrial principles 

 and the introduction of other industrial procedures not described here. 



Berlin-Friedrichshagen, in the Spring of 1933., 

 TT. Schaeperclaus, 



