THE LIVE-FOOD PROBLEM. 



BY CHAS. G. ATKIXS. 



I think I may sal'i'ly say that no fisli-culuirist disputes that 

 live food would be better for fish than dead food if it could he 

 had of suitable kind, in sufficient quantity, and at a reasonable 

 cost. 1 am not aware that there has been any positive det^'rnii- 

 nation of this question by accurate research, but in the absence 

 of such determination I think that we are justified in takinji- that 

 view. Each one of the species of the family of salmoniilae whicii 

 form almost exclusively the subjects of fishfeeding work in 

 America is plainly by nature a feeder on living animal--; to such 

 an extent is this true that seldom will one of these fishes pay the 

 least attention to the most delicious morsel that does not have 

 that most evident characteristic of the traits of life-motion. 



The possible sources of live food may be broadly divided into 

 two classes, first, aquatic animals; second, land animals. 

 Amongst the former arc other fishes, water-insects, shrimps, 

 dai)hnids, and other Crustacea, water-snails, etc. Amongst the 

 latter are all the aerial insects with such of their larvae as an' 

 not a(iuatic. angleworms, etc. 



Of the first group we may note that it comprises the t'litire 

 natural food of fishes: and it would seem that search for a livi' 

 food for the fish-eultnrist's broods should l)e first conducted along 

 this line. What is there available amongst aquatic animals? 

 The number that might possildy ])e of some use is so very greav 

 that a bari' list ol' their names would take more time in the read- 

 ing than I can afliord in this address. 1 will theret'ori' confin^' 

 myself to a very few. 



Most prominent among aquatic animals for our present pur- 

 pose, are the small Crustacea of fresh waters, the shrimps an-i 

 the entomostraca and among the entomastraca, especially the 

 da])hnids or waterileas. Some of these Crustacea are present in 

 every fisli pond, howevi'r small, and under favorable conditions, 

 which nature ofti'U gives them, they l)ecome very abundant. It 

 is on tliese minute creatures that young fishes of the salmon fam- 

 ilv mainly teed in the spring and earlv summer. In manv brooks 



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