AN IMPROVEMENT IN HATCHING AND REARING BOXES; 



WITH NOTES ON THE CONTINUOUS FEEDING 



OF THE FRY OF SALMONID/E. 



By G. E. SIMMS, 

 Ex-Curator oj the Brighton Aquarium, Brighton, England. 



It will, I think, be admitted by even the most conservative exponent of 

 modem pisciculture that there is ample scope for improvement in the type 

 of box now used for hatching and rearing, inter alia, the eggs and fry of 

 salmonoids. Speaking broadly, it appears to me that it would be impossible to 

 conceive and, having conceived it, to design an appUance which so thoroughly 

 combines in a small compass the minimum of utility and the maximum of 

 imperfection characterizing thesquarecornered, oblong pattern of wooden box on 

 which pisciculturists, for lack of a better form of apparatus, are forced to depend 

 for carrying out one of the most important sections of their work. It is not 

 improbable that this may be regarded as a too sweeping indictment of an old 

 and valued servant — if I may be permitted so to describe an inanimate 

 object — but, at the risk of differing from those of my hearers who later on will 

 be my critics, I venture to maintain that, apart from the fact that by its agency 

 fish ova can be brought to maturity, the rectangular wooden hatching box has 

 not a single redeeming quality attached to its name. Indeed, so much so is 

 this the case that I will advance a step further and assert that any utility 

 it may possess in this connection is altogether nullified by the facilities it 

 provides for the unchecked production of fungus, which render it a constant 

 menace and danger to eggs, alevins, and fry alike, so long as they are confined 

 within its sphere of influence. 



Three factors are responsible for this unsatisfactory state of affairs. These 

 are the material of which the box is built, its rectangular form, and, last but 

 not least, the position at which the waste-water outlet is situated. A moment's 

 consideration will convince anyone with a practical knowledge of the interior 

 of a hatchery of the correctness of my statement. From either a practical or a 



B. B. F. 1908— Pt 2—22 1 01 7 



