204 FISH CULTURE 



water, usually in the vicinity of aquatic plants. 

 As soon as the ice leaves the lake in the spring 

 the fish make ready for spawning and by the 

 latter part of April this function is concluded. 

 The eggs are deposited in water usually less 

 than 10 feet deep, and sometimes as shallow as 

 six feet, preferably in muddy bays. The males 

 are usually smaller than females of the same 

 age, and very little milt suffices to fertilise a 

 large number of eggs. The species is very 

 prolific. A fish weighing 35 pounds will yield 

 265,000 eggs, each about an eleventh of an inch 

 in diameter, 74,000 filling a quart-measure. 



Muscallonge eggs are separate, nonadhesive, 

 and semibuoyant, and under favourable cir- 

 cumstances 97 per cent, have been hatched. At 

 55°F. they will hatch in 15 days ; and the yolk 

 sac is absorbed ia about 15 days more. When 

 first hatched the fry is so heavy that it is un- 

 able to swim from the jars into the battery 

 trough. The eggs, therefore, should be trans- 

 ferred, when the fry are about ready to emerge 

 from the shell, to trays set in boxes placed in 

 the troughs. The boxes are fitted with wire 

 at each end to insure a direct and uninterrupted 



