Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-06-04
TRUE FOOD OF FISH.
A SLIGHT UNFOLDING OF WHAT ARE
THE WONDERS OF NATURE.
Oysters Cannot Be Fsttened-Pastures M
the sea-How DO Free Swimming Fish
Exist?-Mipute Animal Life In the Wa
ter-The Rearing of Trout.

In regard To fish, and particularly their
food, the last word has not by any means
been presented IL by means OF fish chi
ture some comprehension has been gained
OF rearing trout, what we know about the
salmonide Is not To be applied 20 the nu-
triton OF all other fish. The error as TO
the feeding OF oysters, or what is called
the fattening OF them, by scattering meal
In the barrels where the mollusks have
been kept is the most absurd OF practices.
It Is questionable whether there is any fat
at all in an oyster and whether no can un
der any circumstances increase his stock
OF condensed hydrocarbons. He feeds, of
course, under certain circumstances and
yoraciously, and increases In size and
meat and becomes corpulent, but he does
not fatten, as would pig.
The Spectator, whose articles on natural
history are as Intelligent AS they are prao
tical shows what 1t designates as the ''in-
visible food OF fish" III we get an inkling
as to the river I'm which fish feed, the prob
lem of the free ranging sea fish Is not so
readily determinable. In the rivers run
ming through comparatively narrow banks
there must be- always "a certain amount of
plant life. These are the pastures, in which
grow the innumerable small crustaceans,
| or minute forms, on which the river fish
can feed But at sea this is by no means
the case. If on the coasts there Is marine
vegetation, at certain distance from the
shore there Is no such growth.
Draw bucket of water from the Allan
tic ocean, and there are TO your eyes no
floating organisms in it, and yet there
may be innumerable fish in good condition
| found In the same open water. The anad-
romous fish do not apparently move far
away from the mouths of the rivers at
whose sources they were born, but in the
ocean there are countless fish, pelagic ones,
that move where they list and keep In
good condition. If there is nothing visible
In the water Of the ocean, IL cannot, how
ever, be- "a foodless waste" We cannot
understand what is growth in bird four
footed animal or in fish without being
positive that increase In size comes from
absorption of food. Something that takes
on additional weight and size never came
| from nothing.
When certain sea fish are caught near
the shore, rs Is the cod, or the bluefsh, or
the striped bass, these being carnivorous,
we know on what they they had been feed
ing. There would be very many more lob
sters If there were not so many cod, and, as
shoals If it were not for the hungry bluefsh.
How explain for the smaller fish, such
as the herring, and finding 1t at certain
seasons in its primest and latest condi-
| tionp II we can understand the movements
of "a shoal of herring, moving along in O
! solid phalanx and sometimes at high
rate of speed we could understand why
there Is no opportunity for them TO stop
| and feed
The explanation why certain fish keep
at certain periods of the year in good con-
| dition Is because salt water, Transparent
as IL may seem TO us to be, abounds with
food. These creatures, microscopic though
they may be, nature supplies in limitless
| quantity for the support OF the fish. We
know that in parts of the ocean frequent
ed by the whales the only food OF certain
of these huge cetaoeans Is what is known
| as brit" and these are small aquatic
creatures which are found in incalculable
quantities. The whale, then, may be said
to live at times on "a sea of soup and
has only to open its mouth, strain out the
water and swallow its food.
There are innumerable other microscopic
creatures In the water of the sea which
support the fish. They are like the notes
in the air. These minute creatures are
endowed with marvellous feoundity.
There Is one known TO scientists as the
oyclops, which in the year produces as
many as $4,000 young. 1t may be re-
marked here that nature is always on the
watch TO prevent determination, so that
when any one of its creatures is likely to
be imperiled 10 endows IL with "a marvellous
fecundity. But then, again, what feeds
these small forms and perpetuates themS
II.
nomic process. All these microscopic
forms exist in the refuse carried into the
sea and thrown on it. If they assimilate
this waste and thrive on it, they again
give new life to the fish which devour
them, and thus the cycle of existence is
ever going round and round.
The Germans in their fish cultural
studies, have put in prominence what they
designate as the intensive process The
name itself Is rather farfetched, and not
readily understandable The idea is rather
one meaning the condensation Of the work
of fish culture or that within certain linn
its, represented by u pond, there ought to
be- found all the food young fish might
| want The advocates of this system
strongly urge the cultivation of plant life
In ponds and the growth of orustaceans
which thrive on this vegetable life. In "a
recent lecture on fish culture, given In
London by Mr.. Armistead, the necessity
was urged of making separate pools, grow
ing weeds and plants there, in which the
millions OF entomostraca might increase
and serve as food for the young trout
FORMERLY Ii VS. believed in Germany that
carp were exclusively vegetarian, and ac-
cordingly carp ponds were drained and
planted with rye as carp food. 1t was
thought that the carp ate the grain. This
might be true in small measure, but the
carp took to the grain not for the vegeta-
BILE substance in 1t, but because 1t was
harborage Of innumerable small crusta-
ceans
English experts are answerable for this
statement-that trout fed on worms grew
slowly; others, fed on minnows, did better,
but those fed on insects grew twice as fast
New York Times.