The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1909-06-10

Shad and whitehsh eggs are but
little heavier than water, and are
Matched in Jars Of special design, to
prevent masslng and consequent suf-
location Of the eggs A current OF
water is conducted into the bottom
of the Jars and out Of the top, the
whole volume of eggs being kept
in constant circulation, while the fry,
as they are Matched, are automatical-
ly carried over into suitable tanks or
containers.
The eggs Of the cod family, the
mackerel family, and some Of the
fsthsh, on the contrary, are buoy
ant, and float at the surface Of the
sea. These pelagic eggs, as they are
called, when in state Of nature, are
particularly well supplied with oxy-
gen, owing to the tossing Of the
waves, so they require special aera-
ton, and to supply this and to slmu-
late natural conditions a tidal box
is employed.
The "Tidal Box"
BY an ingenious application OF the
siphon principle, the water in the
Matching Jars or boxes is caused TO
rise and fall like the tide every FIVE
or ten minutes, while strong cur
rents whirl the water into a SEM
blance of wave action and keep the
eggs in constant agitation.
Still another class of eggs, like
those Of the herring, pike perches
and the surgeons, form adhesive
which make them difficult to
fertilize and aerate, and they are
usually mixed with a little powdered
starch or muck to destroy their
after which they are in
cubated by one of the methods al
ready described.
During the process of incubation,
which occupies, according to the spe-
cles and the temperature of the wat
err. from three days to eight months,
the fish culturist has ample scope
for the application Of experience,
skill and good judgment. Slight
changes in the rate of flow Of water,
in the later stages, may
alter materially the course of devel-
opment, apparently Insignificant var
iations in the quantity and quality Of
dissolved gases may make or mar the
record Of a hatchery, and there are
always lurking spores of bacteria and
fungi to plunge the whole product of
a seasons work suddenly into the
throes of an epidemic.
The jars and troughs must be
kept clean, and the dead eggs fire.
luently removed, although with many
species there is a critical period in
development when the eggs can hard
" be handled at all without disaster
All sorts of monstrosities, fry with
Two heads, two tails, or Siamese
wins, may develop from Injurious
or from no apparent cause,
and toward the end of incubation
may be often expedited or
retarded by irregularity in the flow
If water, so that the judgment of
he fish culturist is called into play
hat he may bring his charges into
he world at the time best suited to
lis purposes,
The little fish normally breaks from !
he egg tail first, and even some time
,efore Matching, the hind end of the
,ody can be seen lashing from side |
o side within the shell.
The infant fish just Matched is an
wkward, sprawllng creature, but lit
lie. resembling its parents. It's head |
5 prominent and knobby, with eyes
isproportionately large, its body is
ong, slender and transparent, while |
eneath the belly is a strange, pro-
urding yellow or whitish bag, COW
red with branching blood vessels, |
he yolk sac-a most important al |
hough transitory organ. The mouth |
J not yet open, and the fry is there
ore incapable of feeding, although |
ay by day it grows in size and
hanges in shape, gradually becoming |
lore and more like its parent.
AS the little fish grows, the yolk
&c becomes progressively less con-
Dicuous, and the conviction Is soon
breed upon the observer that there
some relation between the two
henomena. The yolk sac is, in re-
lily, food reservoir fabricated in
ne body of the parent and stored in
ie egg; and the blood vessels rami-
ling over its surface are the agents
Y which it is absorbed and convert
into the tissues of the growing
lfant. About the time that it final
disappears, in some species a little
efore and in others a little later,
he mouth becomes useful organ,
i'd the baby fish hegins to feed. at