Shir a. — Fish Culture at the F airport Station 41 



Bass, crappie, sunfish and bullheads are the fish ordinarily 

 used in stocking small ponds, but in view of the demand for 

 fishes that reach a larger size attention has been given to two 

 other fishes as possibilities for this purpose; namely, the buffalo- 

 fish of the genus Ictiobus and the channel catfish, Ictalurus punc- 

 tatus. The European carp should also come in for additional 

 attention in this regard. 



Experiments with the buffalofish were started in the spring 

 of 1915, with young fish artificially hatched in Downing jars. 

 One hundred and eighty thousand fry were placed in a small 

 earth pond and later transferred to a pond of about one acre in 

 area. In the fall this pond yielded about 50,000 fingerlings, 

 varying in length from one to six and one-half inches. While 

 this is not a phenomenal growth it was very encouraging when 

 consideration was given to the fact that the pond was new and 

 devoid of vegetation. Thirteen fish that had been placed in a 

 small pond containing abundant vegetation had reached an 

 average length greater than six inches. The rearing of these fish 

 has been continued and this year at an age of two years some of 

 the fish retained had reached a length of seven and one-half 

 inches. Additional fish were hatched last year and this year 

 and further experiments are being carried on. This season two 

 ponds have been devoted to yearling buffalo, about 1,000 per 

 acre in one and about 3,000 per acre in the other. These fish 

 are being fed partially on artificial food and good growth is being 

 made. In two other ponds of equal size, fry were placed, 2,500 

 in one and 6,500 in the other. These fish are subsisting wholly 

 on natural food and though considerable loss has been sustained, 

 presumably caused by parasitic trematodes, the surviving fish 

 had reached an average length of about two inches by July 12, 

 at an age of about two months. 



What we consider one of the greatest achievements is the fact 

 that we have succeeded in inducing the buffalofish to spawn 

 in one of the ponds. This was tried last year, but without results. 

 The same brood stock, augmented by additional fish taken from 

 the river this spring, was placed in an earth pond of about an 

 acre in area. In order to simulate natural conditions to some 

 extent, the pond was only partially filled with water when the 

 fish were introduced and the water level was gradually raised at 



