Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 423 



The following account of its spawn and spawning habits are 

 given in Goode's American Fishes (Revised edition) : 



"The eggs are from 1 to 1 millimeters in diameter and light 

 golden yellow in color, and are adhesive like those of the sea-her- 

 ring, clinging to stones, roots, and the stalks of water plants where 

 they are deposited at a depth of from three to ten feet. They 

 begin to spawn when less than a pound in weight, and each female 

 deposits from two or three hundred thousand ova. This great 

 fertility is serviceable, for no freshwater species is more subject 

 to the fatalities incident to the spawning season. After storms 

 the shores of lakes are said to be often bordered by windrows of 

 the stranded ova of the pike-perch. Dr. Estes well describes the 

 destructive inroads of sturgeon, catfish and suckers upon the 

 spawning beds in Lake Pepin. He estimates that 'not one-fourth 

 of the eggs remain to be hatched.' He quotes Dr. Estes as say- 

 ing that 'Just as soon as the lake is well closed over with the ice, 

 they leave the deep water and resort to the sand-bars where they 

 remain until spring, it seems a fact that they select and take 

 possession of the spawning beds fully three months before they 

 are needed for use. I have carefully observed this habit for more 

 than twenty-five years, and each year's observation is confirmatory. 

 In the first place we do not take them on these bars in summer, 

 and again two-thirds of all that are taken from the beginning of 

 winter to spring are females, proving conclusively that they thus 

 early select these bars as spawning grounds. I have often visited 

 them as early as May (the spawning season in Lake Pepin is from 

 the first to the fifteenth of April or even earlier) but failed to find 

 the fish, while, from the closing of the lakes to March, they are 

 often found in great numbers/ " 



Dr. Goode further says that "The pike-perches are never taken 

 in large numbers for use in commerce except during the spawning 

 season, or immediately before it, and like the perch, they are in the 

 finest condition when full-roed." 



The Pike-perch is very free from parasitic copepods or fish- 

 lice, although a few examples contained Ergasilus on the gills. One 

 or two examples seen had leeches attached to the fins. They seem 

 to be nearly or wholly free from distomids and Acanthocephali. 

 They are, however, subject to infection with tapeworms to a re- 

 markable degree, and nearly all of the individuals examined had 

 the stomach and intestines swarming with multitudes of these 

 parasites. 



Head 3.6 in length; depth about 4.5; eye shorter than snout, 

 4.5 in head; D. XII to XVI-19 to 21 ; A. II, 12 to 14; scales 10-110 



