96 PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 



find in the native fishes, warn us to fix no limit to the hybridization of 

 the carp. We simply raise our voice to urge the keeping of the carp by 

 themselves. 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE SEX OF CARP. 



This is a very important matter, either in the selection of breeders 

 for sale, or for stocking the spawning or hatching pond. 



One of our early American writers on carp culture, declared that the 

 sexes could not be distinguished, unless at the spawning season when the 

 female was very large. But then it was the same author that linked the 

 hearing of fish and marines in the same breath, and taught that carp 

 were vegetarians and slept in the mud all winter. His next volume 

 should be entitled, " What I don't Know About Carp Culture," then if he 

 gets somebody else to write it, the book with his egotism left out will be 

 readable. 



The following article, written for American Carp Culture, Nov., 1886, 

 by Chas. W. Smiley, Washington, D. C., Ed. Bulletin of the United 

 States Fish Commission, covers the subject completely. From many 

 experiments under it we know it to be correct: 



"When the adult is nearing the spawning time, the ripening of the ova 

 produces a broadened appearance in the female, which is sufficient to 

 enable most any one to distinguish the sex. It is necessary, however, to 

 be able to distinguish them at a much earlier age, and this, although not 

 generally understood, is declared by experienced fish culturists to present 

 but little difficulty. Dr. Hessel, superintendent of the United States 

 Government ponds, scarcely ever fails to identify the sexes, although he 

 declares his inability to describe in words, the manner in which he does 

 it. The German carp culturists, however, have distinctly stated their 

 method. 



Horak, in a work published 1869, and entitled Die Teichwirthschaft 

 mit besonderer Ruecksicht auf das suedliche Boehmen. JSin populares 

 Handbuchfuer Teichwirthe, Fischer eibedienstete und Freunde der Fisch- 

 zucht, by Wenzel Horak, says: "Fishermen who are not able to deter- 

 mine the sexes of the fish at once, are in the habit of squeezing the geni- 

 tal parts until they yield either milt or roe. This method is very injuri- 

 ous to the production of young fish. An experienced pond culturist wiH, 

 at the first glance, distinguish a male from a female carp, even when they 

 are only one year old. The milter or male fish, has a depression or con- 

 cave place in its genital parts, while the spawner, or female fish, has a 

 protuberance or convex place." 



Carl Nicklas, perhaps the most skilled carp culturist at present living 

 in Germany, indorses the above quotation from Horak, and adds: "The 

 aperture of the genital orifice also seems to be somewhat larger and red- 

 der in the female than in the male. It is not very difficult to distinguish 

 the male from the female carp; still it may require a little practice." 

 Prof. B. Benecke, of Konigsberg, says: "As a general rule the belly ef the 

 apawner is broader and rounder; the genital aperture is larger and 



