^ 



THE 



AQUARIUM 



21 



by natural methods is even better than 

 by artificial expression. 



Pond culture is the oldest of the 

 three methods. Its practice dates back 

 to very ancient times. The Romans, 

 the Greeks and the Egyptians all raised 

 fish by that means. So did the Chinese. 

 Indeed there is reason to believe they 

 were the first. There are records that 

 more than five hundred years before 

 Christ, a Chinese built a pond and 

 dotted it with islands, with the avowed 

 idea of fooling the fish that they were 

 in their natural environments, and that 

 the islands were continents. In the 

 pond, the cute Chinese placed about 

 twenty fish. By the end of the first 

 year there were several thousand fine 

 fish, by the end of the second, several 

 hundred thousand, and by the end of the 

 third there were so many that the pioneer 

 fish culturist couldn't count them all. 

 That this man did business there is no 

 doubt, but we are forced to the con- 

 clusion either that he outclassed 

 Annanias or did better than any fish 

 culturist since his time, for there is not 

 one at the present time who could not 

 count every fish he can raise by pond 

 culture. In fact pond culture produces 

 less fish than any other method. 



The artificial expression of eggs from 

 fish was discovered by a Jesuit in 

 France about the latter part of the Fif- 

 teenth Century. He fertilized trout 

 eggs and hatched them in a hatching 

 box which he invented. His discovery 

 made no stir and was forgotten after his 

 death, and the fact that he had per- 

 formed this important feat was not 

 learned until many years after, and then 

 only by the accidental finding of old 

 records in the monastery, in which he 

 lived. Count Jacoby, a German noble- 

 man, rediscovered artificial fertilization 



and hatching of trout in the middle of 

 the Seventeenth Century. Curiously 

 enough, his hatching apparatus was al- 

 most identical with that of the obscure 

 priest. But Jacoby was a scientific man 

 and he published his experiments and 

 results in a scientific bulletin. The 

 pamphlet was translated into several 

 languages and excited widespread scien- 

 tific interest, but no one seemed to think 

 there would be any practical use for it. 



It was not until after 1840 that fish 

 culture by the artificial expression and 

 fertilization of eggs was put to practical 

 use, and it is a curious fact that it 

 wasn't through Count Jacoby's discovery 

 that this came about. His discovery 

 like that of the priest had become for- 

 gotten. The world owes practical fish 

 culture to two Breton fishermen. These 

 two peasants became interested in watch- 

 ing trout spawn, and they made what to 

 them was an amazing discovery, that the 

 eggs of the trout were not fertilized 

 until after they left the body of the 

 female. Wondering if the eggs could 

 not be pressed from the female, they 

 tried it and with success. They devised 

 a hatching apparatus which proved 

 successful, and then communicated their 

 discovery to the French government. 

 The latter was profoundly interested 

 and appointed one of the men, Gehin by 

 name, a Commissioner to instruct others 

 in the new art. Gehin's partner in this 

 work, Mons. Remy was forced to drop 

 out by reason of illness. 



Among those who took lessons from 

 Gehin, was an American, who imparted 

 his knowledge to a Dr. Garland of 

 Cleveland. Dr. Garland became enthus- 

 iastic and fertilized and hatched a lot 

 of salmon-trout eggs. A few years later, 

 in the early '60's, William Ainsworth, a 

 New Yorker, started a commercial trout 



