682 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



■whicli are continually improved by the introduction of Italian and 

 Portuguese fish, and by adding the finest specimens which he raises 

 every year. 



Of fancy fish his ponds contain, besides a few peculiarly colored speci- 

 mens, the "dolphin," the "head," the "double tail" or "narwhal," and 

 the " telescope-fish." Whenever Mr. Wagner wishes to produce some 

 new fish, he maizes some of these monstrosities interbreed, and thus 

 obtains novel specimens. 



Although there is no fixed rule, the proportion of females to males in 

 the spawning-ponds is generally as 2 to 1 ; in sorting them great atten- 

 tion must be paid to their quality, age, &c. 



It is likewise important, not only with regard to the old but also to 

 the young fish, that (excepting the winter months) they are i>roperly 

 sorted and distributed, so that fish of the same size are put together, 

 and that sufficient and suitable insect food is supplied for those ponds 

 in which the fish are placed when coming from the spawning-ponds. In 

 order to secure this food the fish are generally placed in ponds which 

 have laid dry for seven or eight weeks; and if it should happen that one 

 or the other of these ponds has less food than usual, it can easily be 

 supplied from one of the neighboring jionds, or in case of necessity from 

 the artificial stream G by ai^plying a double hand-pump. 



On this stream depends the supply of water for the twenty hatching- 

 ponds near the machine-house; the suction-pipe of the injector rises 

 or descends according to the depth in which infusoria and other insects 

 are found in the stream. In calm weather they are generally found at 

 or near the surface, and farther down during windy weather. Their 

 exact place of sojourn can always be ascertained by dii>ping a glass 

 cylinder vertically into the stream, and by observing their position in 

 the column of water. 



The insects, however, are not alive when they become food for the 

 fish. Before they reach the twenty ponds they have been killed by the 

 heat of the water — which in summer is often raised to a temperature of 

 100° Fahrenheit by steam from the boiler. Not satisfied with the eflect 

 of the heat — in high temperature fish breathe oftener and consequently 

 take in more food — and this system of what may be called "condensed 

 insect-feeding," Mr. Wagner finds it beneficial to supplement this nat- 

 ural food from time to time with artificial food, using for this purpose 

 blood, small pieces of meat, and occasionally barley which has com- 

 menced to germinate (refuse from breweries). This food is not cooked, 

 but simply thrown into the ponds (the blood in small lumps) wherever 

 the water is shallow. 



The results of this Oldenburg feeding system, as regards the growth 

 of the fish, are as follows : Some of them double their weight in a week's 

 time, and under ordinary circumstances the young fish have reached a 

 length of 1:^ to 2i| inches in autumn. When properly colored the largest 

 are then sold as "glass-fish." Most of them, however, do not reach a 

 salable size till the end of the second summer. 



