FEEDING AND REAKING FISHES. 
295 
To state that 20,000 fish require three buckets of food i>er diem, without stating the 
Aveight of the fish, is insufficient. 
One of the first things to impress itself upon the attention of the student of this 
question is the Avide and almost unaccountable variation in the size and Aveight 
ac(iuii'ed by fishes of the same species under different hydrographic and climatologic 
conditions. In some instances this Amriation amounts to 700 per cent. Gomiiare the 
Aimights of yearling trout raised in Colorado and Missouri. Who Avould say that 
1,000 of the Missouri trout should be restricted to the same daily rations as a like 
number of like fish in Colorado? ElseAvhere I liaAm said that the Colorado trout could 
not consume the allowance of the Ozark (Missouri) trout, and that the Ozark trout 
AAmiild stunt or starve on the Colorado alloAvance, Better results aviII be obtained 
AA-hen fish-cultiirists realize that fishes must be properly and plentifully fed in their 
infancy and that their allowance of food, regardless of age, must be in constantly 
ascending ratio Avith their increasing weight. 
In the first study of this question I early found the lack of definite data in the 
English writings. Correspondence was instituted to ascertain the general practice. 
For convenience of comparison and study a condensed tabular statement of the 
replies received is here presented : 
Food and growili of irout. 
Name and location of 
establishment. 
Eleva- 
tion 
above 
.sea 
level. 
Moan 
annual 
tom- 
])era 
turo of 
water. 
Average 
daily ra- 
tions, in 
pounds, 
per 1,000 
yearling 
"trout. 
Character of 
food. 
Natural food 
present in 
ponds. 
Longtli 
of aver- 
age year- 
ling 
trout. 
Weight per 1,000 average 
yearlings, in x^ounds. 
1 
0 
1 
! 
Ha h' 
§ 
° F. 
Inches. 
i 
150 
50 
1. 16 
2. 5 to 6 
Howietomi, Scotland 
300 
50 
.66 
do 
do 
3, 5 
No tests made. 
10 
50 
do 
50 
: 50 
200 
49 56 
do 
4 to 10 
50 
1 50 
50 
7 GOO 
4 
do 
140 
1 
0 500 
68 70 
No 
7 to 8 
160 
500 
35-76 
130 
i ■ 
COO 
59. 5 
2. 5 
7 to 10 
’^'250 
i 
685 
40. 5 
10 
. . do 
5 
75 
80 
150 j 80 
690 
48 
.. .do 
3. 25 
1 15 
1 15 
Ilia, N. T. 
t 20 j 1 15 
50 
50 
7. 5 
6 
t 90 
. . . 1 + on 
4, 660 
do 
6 
1, 100 
. 5 
do 
4. 5 
50 
50 
50 
Duluth Station, TJ, S. F. C. 
602 
do 
5 
70 
80 
140 ! 80 
9. 640 
36.3 
. 12 
10 
6 
600 
14. 3 
. 14 
do 
§60 
^80 
§ 40 
2, 300 
53 
.47 
do 
4. 5 
" 60 
ISeo.sho Station, tf. S. F. C. 
l]041 
58 
1. 87 
^veg. -J-animT 
do 
5. 5 
75 
51.8 
i 
* This weight was for fish 15 mouths old. My experiments in the spring of 1883 demonstrated that rainbow trout increase 
their weight enormoLisly in the fourteenth and fifteenth months. In xiroportion to the increase at iN'eosho the Troutdale 
(Mammoth Spring) trout, at 1 year old probably weighed 82.27 pounds jier 1,000 fish. 
t i^Ir. Annin says; “I have been very careful that my answers have been correct, and not magnified.” 
These answers are given as of May 1. I should say that the fish were yeaidings past, and, judging from the length of 
the fish, very highly- fed. 
^Determined by the weights of specimen fish furnished to be cast for the World’s Fair at Chicago. Pish furnished hy 
the Neosho station for the same purj>ose ran 390 pounds for brook, 200 imunds for Von Behr, and 140 imunds for rainbow 
trout (per 1,000 yearbug fish). 
