30 AMEEICAN CATFISHES. 



his antagonist would come when the jaws of the two are locked, head on, in their fights 

 for the possession of the females. This is the opinion of the commercial fishermen at 

 Chautauqua Lake, New York, where many male fish are found locked together, dead 

 or dying, during the breeding season. We have observed no deaths from this cause, and 

 the fact that all fish that we call guards are wounded as described would seem to indi- 

 cate that they lock and then break away and lock again, thus giving each combatant a 

 chance to have a sore head. 



As with the black bass, and doubtless many other fishes, there is as much difference 

 in these female catfish on the point of being good or poor mothers as there is in the case 

 of hens or human beings. One mother will be seen working continually stirring up the 

 mud to procure food for the fry, rounding them up when a portion of the brood wanders 

 away and keeping the school together until they have grown to an inch and a half in 

 length and are as large around as a lead pencil, while another fish, probably of the same 

 age and size, will leave her young to stir up the mud for themselves, allow them to 

 break up into small schools, and finally will abandon them entirely. They then 

 wander about in small bands or are incorporated with some other brood. 



Another very interesting feature in the breeding habits of this fish is that schools of 

 about the same age, or, say, within a week of each other, coalesce, all in the pond form- 

 ing into one school. In ponds K and M there were several early broods in each pond. 

 These remained with their respective parents until they had attained some size and 

 become active in their search for food, when they consolidated into one large school in 

 each pond and so remained until collected for shipment. The ponds were so clear and 

 the black mass of moving fry so easily seen that there was no doubt about the correct- 

 ness of this observation. The later hatches remained with their parent fish, not join- 

 ing with the older broods, but subsequently they sought other broods of about their 

 own age, thus again forming another large school. 



Some experiments have been made in feeding these small catfish, with a view to 

 holding them in fry ponds, all former attempts in this direction having failed. Well- 

 cooked corn mush thinned down to a gruel was distributed in a narrow line along the 

 margin on one whole side of a pond, and at the termination of the trail a considerable 

 field, say, 8 or 10 feet square, was moderately covered with the feed. The fragmentary 

 schools — those broken up through poor maternity or other causes— would strike these 

 trails, follow them as a hound would follow a rabbit track, and then clean up all of the 

 feed on the field referred to. They also greedily devour finely ground mullet. It 

 is believed by the writer that excellent results may be attained through a judicious 

 system of feeding both the old and young of this species. As the adults are not pug- 

 nacious, except the males during breeding season, we believe that 100 adults could 

 easily and successfully be carried in each of our ponds by giving each a board home 

 and supplying them a suitable quantity, with some variety, of proper food — say cut 

 mullet, with liver for a change. These fish are not subject to epidemics, are easily 

 raised in ponds, finding much of their own food, and are easily captured when wanted. 



Mr. W. E. Meehan, Commissioner of Fisheries for Pennsylvania, 

 has found (see Transactions of the American Fishery Society, 1908) 

 that for the "white" and "yellow" catfish an ordinary pond 100 feet 

 square or larger will breed the fish. It should have "heavy" hard 

 clay banks so that the fish when ready to spaw^n may dig a hole in the 

 bank that will not cave in. The water should also be "cloudy." 

 When the little fish have arrived at the "advanced-fry" stage, they 

 leave the nest or hole and begin "roHing," as it is called. The large 

 fish circle round and round and move the fry over the pond in the form 

 of a ball-like mass. When these balls begin to break up, the fry are 



