Part III.] Pond Fish Culture. 117 



life that serve as food for the fry. While the sunfishes are 

 essentially carnivorous, yet they eat a considerable amount of 

 vegetable food. 



The very late spawning season of the Bluegills causes the 

 young fish of this species to appear also at a time when the 

 ponds are full of minute life and the young fish have a great 

 opportunity to feed and grow, and also to sacrifice themselves 

 or be sacrificed as delicate morsels of food for other and larger 

 fishes. 



We find that by building ponds double, so that the young 

 bass can be allowed to pass into the sunfish ponds, that the 

 Bluegill and the Green sunfish can be made to furnish a great 

 deal of very desirable food for the bass, some of which have 

 attained a length of from one to two inches, or even more, be- 

 fore the sunfishes, especially the Bluegills, appear. Young 

 bass are such enormous feeders that we find it necessary to 

 resort to all kinds of schemes in order to get food enough to 

 keep them going. We find it necessary to raise a number of 

 varieties of fish at the Hatchery that serve as food for both old 

 and young bass. 



Sunfish Good for Ponds, and Easily Fed. 



Take it all in all, the sunfishes, especially the Bluegills, are 

 among the most satisfactory fish that it is possible to raise in 

 a small pond. By a small pond we mean one in size from, say, 

 one-eighth of an acre to one acre. If the pond is properly 

 stocked with water plants a great number of f!sh can be raised. 



Sunfish are cannibalistic when food gets scarce. The larger 

 specimens eat up the smaller ones. However, it is necessary 

 for something of this kind to happen, as such an enormous 

 number of fish are hatched out that if all lived and grew to 

 any size the water would soon become a solid mass of fish. 

 These fish, when fried brown and crisp, can be eaten when they 

 are about two years old ; though rather small at this age, they 

 are sweet and of a very delicate flavor. At three and four 

 years of age they are of fine size for table use. 



They can be raised in ponds with other fish, and can be 

 taught to eat almost anything, and are especially fond of in- 

 sects. This can be demonstrated easily by throwing insects 

 on the water where the fish are accustomed to feed. They 

 will eat almost any kind of meat that is chopped up. We 

 found, while feeding the goldfish bread, that the sunfish were 

 always on hand getting their share of it. We fed table scraps, 

 including beans, potatoes and oatmeal, and found that the sun- 

 fish would eat almost anything. They learned to come to cer- 

 tain places, where tbey were fed at a certain time of the day, 

 usually at five or six o'clock in the evening. One day we 

 chopped up a piece of watermelon just to see what would 

 happen, and we found that the Bluegills, sunfish, and even 



