THE PIKES: DISTMBUTION AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. 13 



Formerly the eggs were hatched in boxes, but at present they are 

 placed in glass jars and hatched hke whitefish eggs in artesian-well 

 water with a uniform temperature of about 48° F. The embryos are 

 too heavy to swim out of the jars, and therefore they are transferred 

 at the proper state of development to trays in boxes placed in the 

 hatchery troughs. These boxes are fitted with wire at each end to 

 insure a direct and uninterrupted flow of water, which prevents the 

 banking up of the fry at the lower end of the tray. Eggs first taken 

 on April 18 began to hatch on May 16. The shell of the egg was very- 

 dark, almost black. 



Premature hatching occurred on some occasions, due to a differ- 

 ence of temperature between the lake and the artesian water, a 

 difference of 7° or 8° F. when the eggs were transferred. Cold water 

 was found very bad for hatching the eggs. They do not develop 

 properly, some having no shell when hatched and the fry small and 

 weak. On the other hand, if hatched in warm water the fry would 

 be black and strong and almost twice as large. The best water to 

 use is lake water, which should grow gradually warmer. 



Mr. Wilham Buller, of Corey, Pa., hatched muskellunge eggs on 

 the finest wire trout trays in water at a temperature of 45° F., where 

 they were stated to hatch in 62 days into fine and healthy fry. 



Muskellunge fry can be kept very easily imtil they begin to swim 

 up, but after that the losses through cannibahsm are so serious that 

 it has been found impossible to rear them. 



It does not, however, swim up as soon as the yoimg of most fishes 

 and is much affected by the quality of the egg. Sudden changes 

 of temperature of the water injure the egg seriously. 



Young muskellunge kept in a small creek, at the hatchery grounds 

 at Bemus Point, grew faster than those in artesian water in the 

 hatchery troughs and ponds. 



Many attempts have been made to rear the muskellunge to finger- 

 ling size, but none has succeeded on account of the cannibahsm so 

 characteristic of the young. 



The young fry are usually ready for planting about the end of May 

 or in June. 



The Wisconsin commission began to propagate the muskellimge 

 dm'ing the spring of 1899 in connection with the work of collecting 

 wall-eyed pike ova (Nevins, 1901). The chief difficulty encountered 

 was stated to be to catch the fish on the eve of spawning, as it was 

 fomid that the large fish would not stand confinement, and in the 

 beginning sufficient ripe male fish could not be secured. 



Attempts were made to hold the fish in pens and in a large dummy 

 pocket 20 by 22 feet and 10 feet deep, but in vain. The ova would be 

 retained in the fish and would cake. Finally, a large pen was made 

 in a thoroughfare between two lakes in a current of water, in which 



99805°— 19 25 



