378 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Not, 27, 1890. 



AMERICAN CATFISH'S CARE OF YOUNG. 



"OROBABLY most persons who have visited rivers and 

 X streams which catfish inhabit have observed m the 

 summer an old fish with a black cloud which proved to be 

 of young swimming about. The old fish was the male, 

 and the care of the young was assumed by ham till they 

 were old enough to take care of themselves. Several old 

 observers have recorded their impressions of such con- 

 courses, and among them were the celebrated Agassiz and 



G prof! Agassiz. in his notice of the Giants of Aristotle, 

 likewise noticed the habits of the common catfish of Mas- 

 sachusetts, the Amiurus nebulosus, then generally known 

 as Pimelodus catus. Says Prof. Agassiz: "I have had 

 fewer opportunities to watch [this than the sunfish.] 

 However, I have seen them in the spring, which, m the 

 latitude they inhabit, does not fairly set in before the end. 

 of May, approach the shores of our ponds, like Pomohs 

 [the common sunfish], in pairs, and clear also a space 

 among the low water-grasses, Scirjpus and the like, in 

 very shallow water, not more than a foot or so in depth, 

 and deposit its eggs in the same manner as Pomotis, and 

 watch as carefully and vigilantly over its progeny. _ Yet 

 I have not been able to ascertain how long the period of 

 incubation lasts. But at different times I have seen the 

 young already hatched , still hanging about within the area 

 of the nest, protected by their watchful parent, sometimes 

 the male and female remaining together with them; at 

 other times, either one or the other of the eld fish keep- 

 ing watch alone. I have seen larger broods of young, 

 already three-fourths of an inch, and even an inch long, 

 remaining together like a flock, around one or the other 

 of fcb- parents; and sometimes both swimming slowly in 

 the center or by the side of what, at some distance, would 

 appear like a black cloud rolling slowly through the water 

 in one. or another direction, but which seen more closely, 

 proves to be a flock of young fish. I have observed such 

 flocking broods through the whole month of June, and 

 noticed that in each the young were of larger and larger 

 size in the latter part of the month, until they swim more 

 loosely, and finallv disperse half together; the parents 

 standing near the flock, or even in its center, in propor- 

 tion as the fish are smaller. When watching over the eggs 

 which are not yet hatched, or when following the young 

 brood, the old fish seem very solicitous for the safety of 

 their progeny, and drive away with great fierceness any 

 approaching enemy. I have even seen one dart at a little 

 hand-net which T was dipping in the water, to secure the 

 young which were still hovering over their nest." These 

 observations were recorded in the Proceedings of the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Boston. 



Dr. G-irard described a swarming (to borrow the lan- 

 guage of apiarists) which he observed near Philadelphia 

 in the following terms: 



"In visiting a small pond, situated above Schuylkill 

 Falls village, an innumerable quantity of small fish were 

 seen along shore, near the surface of the water. On ap- 

 proaching them they all suddenly disappeared, and the 

 water being muddy we conld not tell where they went. 

 A scoop-net brought to light a sub«pherical mass, com- 

 posed "exclusively of green confervee, and which after 

 examination proved to be a regular nest, constructed, as 

 we suppose, by the parent fish, whose progeny it con- 

 tained: for in "it the small fishes seen a moment before 

 near the surface had gone to seek shelter. In all proba- 

 bility the eggs were deposited in it, and when hatched, 

 the young, instead of dispersing themselves, remain for 

 some time congregated under the care of the parent who 

 provides food for "them. 



"The number of young fish gathered around the nest 

 ■was at least from 300 to 400 and of different sizes. The 

 largest were about liin. long and the smallest about fin. 

 This difference in size seems to us as indicating that eggs 

 had been deposited and fecundated at different periods 

 in the nest. 



"They all had the abdomen distended like full grown 

 individuals before spawning. But this was owing to the 

 stomach gorged with food. The skin of the belly was so 

 tender that soon after death it was entirely decomposed, 

 the intestine and stomach then appearing outside of the 

 abdominal cavity. 



"The structure of the nest was very simple, confervas 

 in strings were disposed circularly all around. The size 

 of the entire structure was about '8in. in its longest and 

 6in. in its shortest diameter. There was at least one 

 opening to get in and out, but this portion of the nest we 

 could not examine thoroughly from want of clear water; 

 and after having been kept for some time out of the water 

 it was entirely deformed. 



"The nest laid at the bottom of the pond, l-|ft. deep in 

 that place, and protected by aquatic plants growing along 

 shore. The water here is never subjected to any violent 

 motion, and thus the soft materials of which it was 

 constructed were resistant enough for that particular 

 locality. 



"We should think that under other circumstances, as, 

 Jot instance, a current of water, catfish would construct 

 their nests of a substance more capable of resisting a 

 chance of destruction, 



"Further observations will tell us more about this in- 

 teresting subject, and it is with the hope that some one 

 more favorably situated than we are will devote some 

 attention to it, that we have brought before the Academy 

 the very little it was our good fortune to observe on this 

 occasion." 



There is cause for doubt as to the correctness of Dr. 

 jGirard's views as to the nest, and in view of our present 

 knowledge doubt is also provoked as to the care of the 

 female for the young, but these observations of two 

 eminent men are reproduced, not only for their intrinsic 

 interest but to incite to observation of the facts in a state 

 of nature. 



In 1883 the present writer was fortunate enough to wit- 

 ness the incubation and care of the eggs and young ex- 

 ercised by a common catfish of Eastern America, occur- 

 ring in the neighborhood of Washington and known as 

 _Jlmiurus albiclus. In the spring of 1883 a number of 

 adults of this species were obtained from the Potomac 

 Eiver and put into aquaria in the building of the IT. S, 

 Fish Commission. Three of these were placed under Col. 

 McDonald's supervision, in a tank, and of these one de- 

 posited eggs, which were taken chaxge of by another. 

 The account of the doings of the fishes has been given by 

 Prof. John A. Ryder in a "Preliminary Notice of the De- 

 velopment and Breeding Habits of the Potomac Catfish," 

 publisVied in the Bulletin of the U, S. Fish Commission 

 (Vol. 3, pp. 325-230), 



"On the morning of July 13," 1883, according to Prof. 

 Eyder, "a little after 10 o'clock A, M., we noticed a mass 

 of whitish eggs in one of our aquaria, inhabited by three 

 adult specimens of Amiurus alhidais, two of which were 

 unmistakably the parents of the brood, for the reason 

 that they did not permit the third one to approach near 

 the mass of eggs which one of them was watching vigi- 

 lantly. One of the individuals remained constantly over 

 the eggs, agitating the water over them with its anal, 

 ventral and pectoral fins. 



"The mass of ova deposited by the female m a corner 

 and at one end of the slate bottom of the aquariuni meas- 

 ured about eight inches in length and nearly four inches 

 in width, and" was nowhere much over one-half to three- 

 fourths of an inch in thickness. The ova were covered 

 with an adhesive, but not gelatinous, outer envelope; so 

 that they were adherent to the bottom of the aquarium 

 and to each other when their spherical surfaces came tn 

 contact, and consequently had intervening spaces for the 

 free passage of water such as would be found m a sub- 

 merged pile of shot or other spherical bodies. There were 

 probably 2.000 ova in the whole mass, as nearly as could 

 be estimated. The eggs themselves measured about one- 

 sixth of an inch in diameter a short time after opposition 

 and after the large water space had been formed about 

 the vitellus, between the surface of the latter and the egg 

 membrane. The vitellus measured one-eighth of an inch 

 in diameter. Over the eggs thus deposited one of the 

 fishes was to be constantly seen hovering. It was found 

 that it was forcing fresh water through the mass by rapid 

 vibrations of the anal, ventral and pectoral fins. Over 

 these the parent fish kept zealous guard, constantly agi- 

 tating the eggs day after day, and on the sixth the young 

 commenced" to be hatched, and came out in increasing 

 numbers until the eighth day; they exhibited a tendency 

 to bunch up or school together like young salmon. They 

 also, like the young salmon, tended to face or swim against 

 the currents in the aquarium, a habit common, in fact, to 

 most of the voung fishes recently hatched. 



"The development of the fins of the new-born were 

 somewhat similar in general character to that usually ob- 

 served. On the second day the medial natatory fold 

 began to grow out on the dorsal and ventral side and the 

 end of the tail, but up to the fifth day no clearly marked 

 differentiation of any of the unpaired fins had occurred. 

 The first of the paired fins to appear were the pectorals, 

 which began to show themselves on either side of the 

 body on the third day a little way behind the ear, as a 

 pair of low longitudinal folds. The first of the unpaired 

 fins to be developed was the anterior dorsal, which was 

 first marked off from the rest of the natatory fold on the 

 fifth day by a slight e.margination near the anterior end 

 of the latter. Coincidently with the development of the 

 first dorsal the first rays of the caudal bpgan to develop 

 on the fifth day, just below the upturned caudal end of 

 the notochord which terminated near the dorsal border of 

 the tail, but no distinct embryonic caudal lobe was ever 

 developed. 



"On the fifteenth day after oviposition it was found 

 that they would feed. While debating what should be 

 provided for them, Mr. J. E. Brown threw some pieces 

 of fresh liver into the aquarium, which they devoured 

 with avidity. It was now evident that they were pro- 

 vided with teeth, as they would pull and tug at the frag- 

 ments of liver with the most dogged perseverance and 

 apparent ferocity. This experiment showed that the right 

 kindof food had "been supplied, and on this they flourished, 

 none dying, until the 1st of August. It is worthy of note 

 tbat when pieces of liver were thrown into the aquarium 

 the parent fishes would apparently often swallow them, 

 with numbers of young ones eating at and hanging to the 

 fragments. I was'soon agreeably surprised to find that the 

 parent fishes seemed to swallow only the meat, and that 

 they invariaby ejected the young fish from the mouth 

 uninjured, the parent fish seeming" to be able to discrimi- 

 nate' instinctively, before deglutition occurred, between 

 what was its proper food and what were its own young. 

 As soon as the young began to feed they commenced to 

 disperse through the water and to all parts of the aquarium, 

 and to manifest less desire to congregate in schools near 

 the male, who* also abated his habits of fanning the young 

 with his fins, as was his wont during the early phases of 

 development. 



"The most interesting feature of the development and 

 evolution of the young "catfish es is the early appearance 

 of the barbels. The first pair which is visible is the 

 maxillary at the angles of the mouth of the embryo. 

 This pair of barbels grows out at either angle of the 

 mouth, on the third day, as a pair of flat lobes, contin- 

 uous anteriorly with the upper and anterior border of 

 the mouth. By the fifth day the maxillary barbel be- 

 comes much prolonged and cylindrical, while the two 

 pairs of chin barbels appear at the same time a little be- 

 hind the outer margin of the lower jaw as two pairs of 

 low fleshy papillse. By the seventh day these have 

 grown considerably in length and become cylindrical. 

 On the same day the nasal pair of barbels have been 

 formed as papilliform outgrowths at the anterior margin 

 of the posterior nostrils, the anterior and posterior nos- 

 trils being already separated by a pretty wide bridge of 

 tissue. The early separation of the anterior and posterior 

 nostrils by a bridge of tissue in the embryo catfish is a 

 striking instance of the acceleration of precocious devel- 

 opment of this structure, which is not usually formed so 

 early. Thus the young continued to flourish until the SOfch 

 day of June, or about seventeen days after they had been 

 hatched, when it was determined to solve the question 

 of which sex it was that took charge of the young. The 

 custodian of the aquarium had naturally called it the 

 female, but the present writer recalled the fact that it 

 was the male of most fishes that was the care-taker of 

 eggs and young, and that it would be probably found 

 that the male was the care-taker in this "instance. The 

 parent was dissected in the writer's presence by Prof. 

 Ryder and it was found to be a male. "Upon cutting it 

 open and removing a portion of the milt or testes, they 

 were found as a lobulated paired organ on either side of 

 the mesentery, depending from the dorsal wall of the 

 abdomen. The lobes of the testes were digitate. Upon 

 compressing fragments of the testes under the microscope 

 active spermatozoa were pressed out." 



The female wa3 also examined. "The spent roe or 

 ovary of the female was a paired organ, the right and 

 left sacs of which were joined together posteriorly. The 

 ovarian lobes or leaflets were disposed transversely in the 

 sac." 



count, and for further details respecting the development 

 of the young resort must be had to Prof. Ryder's memoir. 



The catfish has now been followed from the egg to its 

 development in the image of its parents. Exactly how 

 long the father remains in charge is unknown, but doubt- 

 less before he leaves them the young have learned well 

 how to forage for themselves. At this stage they have 

 been examined by Prof. Forbes, who tells us that they live 

 upon insect larvae (chiefly represented by Chironomus) 

 and the small crustaceans Cyclops and Daphnia. 



Theo. Gill. 



Mascalonge Teeth as Trophies.— Under date of Oct. 

 18 Mr. Gardiner M. Skinner, of Clayton, N. Y., well- 

 known as the maker of the popular Skinner spoons, 

 writes as follows: "Have you ever extracted any of the 

 large teeth from the lower jaw of a mascalonge? It may 

 be done with a small pair of pliers, and they may be at- 

 tached to a card bearing the record of weight, size, etc., 

 of the fish. I have several of them, and to some they 

 prove a curiosity. An important and large one would be 

 quite a novelty mounted and used as a scarf pin. Don't 

 you think so?"— E. Hough. 



HOLDING LARGE SPAWNING FISH. 



THE handling of large fish without injury to them is a 

 matter of great difficulty. Nets of any kind allow them 

 to flounder about and rub off their scales and mucous coat- 

 ing and tear their fins. The use of the hands also. is liable 

 to injure them, as the grip must be a very secure one. 



The writer in transferring large fish to aquaria has found 

 nothing so useful and so little hurtful for the purpose 

 as a square of wet cheese cloth or muslin. By passing 

 it under the fish and grasping the upper corners or edges 

 the fish is held firmly and securely by the soft and clinging 



muslin. The idea occurred that it might alsobe made useful 

 in snawuing large fish by making of it a sort of bag with a 

 strap for slinging it over the shoulders of the spawntaker, 

 thus relieving his hands. This, while holding the fish se- 

 curely, would allow a free use of both hands. 



With several holes in the bottom of the bag, through 

 which to squeeze the spawn or milt, one bag could be made 

 to answer for fish of varying degrees of size. The soft, 

 clinging nature of the muslin would allow the needed pres- 

 sure to be made from the outside, or the hands could be in- 

 serted into the bag to clasp the fish. It is possible also that 

 the pressure of the muslin alone would force out the spawn 

 freely. A light oval iron frame at the top of the bag would 

 probably be an advantage. 



In some respects light canvas might be found preferable 

 to muslin, especially if oiled or greased, to prevent harsh- 

 ness. It would not, however, allow such free access of air 

 to the gills of the fish. The muslin should be wetted before 

 using, and greasing might be still better, as it would pre- 

 vent the adhesion of mucus. The accompanying illustra- 

 tion will give a general idea of the apparatus suggested. 



W. P. Seal. 



THE TENCH IN MISSOURI, 



WE are advised by the. U. S. Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries, Col. M. McDonald, that the tench, which 

 were transferred from Washington to the new station at 

 Neosho, Mo., in the fall of 1889, promises to be a very prolific 

 and valuable species in the waters of Missouri. Only twenty- 

 three yearling fish were sent to Neosho, but the superin- 

 tendent of the station now has from these a stock of 

 10,000 young fish. The tench has been given a fair trial in 

 Washington City and vicinity, but has apparently made 

 no impression in the streams in which it was planted. 

 An occasional specimen has been caught in the Potomac or 

 one of its tributaries, and found its way to the National 

 Museum or the Fish Commission, as a species unknown to 

 the fishermen; but so far as we are aw r are the tench has 

 never been taken in sufficient numbers to make itself known 

 in the markets. The same remark applies apparently to all 

 eastern waters. It is gratifying, therefore, to find that this 

 fish, which has a high reputation as a food fish in Europe, 

 promises to thrive in some of our Western streams. 



The Neosho waters appear to be peculiarly adapted to in- 

 troduced fish of the carp family. Mr. Page, the superintend- 

 ent of the station, has reason to believe that goldfish, which 

 were hatched in April, 1890, have already matured and pro- 

 duced young. 



THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY, 



r IPHE "Transactions of the American Fisheries Society" 

 J. at their 19th annual meeting, held at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, ; 

 May 14, 1890, is one of the most attractive and valuable 

 of its series. It contains the address of its president, Mr. 

 £. G. Blackford, the record of the routine business of I 

 the meeting and the papers read before the Society. Mr.j 



origin to the end of its 18th annual meeting in 1889. 

 Only selections have been made from Prof. Ryder's ac- . Tha index of authors and subjects is exhaustive Had can 



