REARING 185 



Here they require little attention and no food; but 

 you will inspect the trays daily and remove any corpse 

 you may find. Take care to leave the calico covers 

 on the trays and to keep the blinds of the hatching- 

 house drawn, as sunlight is no less hurtful to the 

 alevins than it was injurious to the eggs. 



Scrupulous cleanliness is one of the first principles 

 of fish culture in all its stages, and a great advantage 

 of a hatching-box of the pattern I have recommended 

 to you is that it is easily cleaned. I do not mean to 

 imply that much cleaning work will be required 

 at this stage ; but even before 

 feeding operations have begun a 

 certain amount of impurity will 

 be found to collect on the sides and bottom of the 

 spaces immediately below the screens. This you will 

 detach with a common saucepan-brush (fig. 13) and 

 draw off with a piece of ^-inch-bore rubber piping 

 about four or five feet long, used as a syphon. 



In your daily battles on behalf of cleanliness at 

 this stage, but more especially later, there must be no 

 truce. Your armoury therefore must not be ill pro- 

 vided with effective weapons for dealing with the 

 forces of uncleanliness. A more serviceable weapon 

 you will hardly find than the rubber syphon. At its 

 touch the daily gatherings of the enemy will disappear 



