PROPAGATION OF CRAPPIE AND CATFISH 



By John L. Leary^ 



superintendent u. s. fisheries station, 

 san marcos, texas. 



It is not so much for what I know about the propagation 

 of these fishes that I take up this subject, as it is to find out 

 through the discussions of the Fisheries Society what others 

 know. It seems as if everybod}' connected with fish cuhure 

 in the United States has ke[)t (juiet a1)out tlie propagation 

 (jf these two vakiable species. At the thirty-fifth annual 

 meeting of this Society I asked some questions as to handhng 

 crappie — from my standpoint important questions. But they 

 ehcited only a blank, no (_)ne seeming prepared or caring to 

 answer. I will now give you some of my experience during 

 the past eleven years at the San Marcos, Texas, station. 



During the fall of 1897, I collected 40 very fine crappie 

 {Ponio.vis annularis) from the Colorado River near Austin, 

 and from Yorks Creek, about 18 miles south of San Marcos, 

 and placed them in one of our best ponds. The waters of the 

 Colorado and Yorks Creek are always slightly roily and 

 often very muddy. After transferring these fish to San 

 Marcos station, which was clone with an unusual amount of 

 care (as this fish I find hard to handle at all seasons in this 

 climate) and after leaving them in the pond at the station 

 for several days, I found every few days fish suffering from 

 pop-eye, the eye enlarging until it seemed ready to burst from 

 the head ; then fungus set in and the fish died in a few hours. 



This continued until I had lost nearh^ all my 40 fish. T 

 liad never handled crappie before, exce])t to catch them in the 

 creeks of eastern North Carolina, but these creeks were 

 always roily and muddy after heavy rains. So I came to the 



