Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-11-12
GOLDFISH FARMING
BY Frederic j. uasIkIn

valley tnat IS WaleFeu Dy numerous
| small, creeks some thirty-flve farm
] ers produce four-fifths of all the
goldfish grown each year in the
| United States.
This crop numbers more than 20,-
100000 of the small bright-hued fish
that delight the eye in bowls and
aquariums, and when 1t is under
stood that the producers receive from
SIS to $45 per thousand. while the
retailer passes them on at price
ranging from ten cents to one dollar,
each, 1t will be seen that a goldfish
pond is a gold mine On a small scale.
AS with his other crops, the farmer
might complain that the middleman
gets entirely too large a share of the
price paid by the ultimate consumer,
but as yet these Maryland piscicul-
turists have not come clamoring to
Congress for relief.
Their production costs are not
great and bN exercising due care
and enjoying a fair proportion of
luck they are certain of compara-
lively large profits, for they have
what is in measure a natural mon
opoly. There is something in the
water, vegetation Or climate of their
valley that causes goldfish to color
better than in any other place in
the country. Just what this is, SCI
entists have not yet determined, but
that it exists is evidenced by the
growth of the industry there within
a quarter of a century and the ready
market which Frederick county
goldfish always find.
The goldfish crop runs from co.
900 to $4,000 per half acre pond.
All that it is necessary to do to pro-
duce this crop is to throw UP banks
of earth three or four feet in height
within which to impound the waters
of a creek, stock the pond with rs
to 100 brood fish, which cost 10
to 25 cents each, and wait on the
processes of nature for five or six
months. The brood fish are usually
put out in mid-April, and the crop
of nice, new little fish Is ready to be
harvested before the cold weather
which comes in October.
The important marketing centers
of the industry are in New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
Cincinnati, Toledo, and Burlington,
Ia. The fish are shipped in specially
constructed ten-gallon cans. About
200 of these cans make a carload,
and every fall from lao to 150 car
loads of these piscatorial treasures
are shipped out of Frederick
county.
Queerly enough, goldfish farming
involves soil cultivation just as does
the raising of any agricultural crop.
Usually the producers fertilize and
plow their goldfish ponds in the
late fall and sow grass or rye to
provide fish pasturage the follow
ing season, while some farmers
rest their ponds every other year
by not flooding them, thus allowing
the natural grasses and other vege-
tation of the region to re-establish
themselves.
Then there are certain varieties of
moss, and cat-tails and rushes, that
must be kept out of the ponds if
the goldfish are to live and prosper
and If the crop is to be harvested
advantageously. Also the growing
fish must be guarded against preda-
tory creatures such as birds, snakes,
muskrats, turtles, and other water
animals, and care must be taken not
ta overstocll the ponds, for the gold
fish are prone to develop cannibal-
istic tendencies if other food is not
abundant, the big ones preying on
the smaller ones. Still another vicis-
situde of the business that must be
reckoned with is the possibility of
the ponds being drained off as a
result of the boring and tunneling
in the banks by ground hogs, musk
rats, and craytish.
Where it is possible the farmers
usually locate their ponds near their
houses where they may be under
almost constant observation, but
where conditions necessitate the To-
cation of the pools in remote places
watchmen are employed to patrol
the banks daily, repair or plug up
all holes or breaks that appear in
the walls, shoot the bird enemies of
the fish and destroy the snakes.
As a rule the ponds range from
one-half to three-quarters of an
acre in area, although in the Fred
erick region there are some that
run from five to ten acres and one
that covers seventeen acres. The
leading producer, G.. Lester Thomas,
operates more than forty acres of
ponds and ships more than 1,500,-
600 goldfish every season. The
Powell Brothers, who were the pio-
neers of the industry, operate about
twenty acres of ponds and sell a
million orXmore fish annually.
The brood fish, those that measure
from four to twelve inches in length,
are carried over the winter in special
pools from which the Ice is removed
as is necessary in order that the fish
may not suffocate. Some of the
farmers feed pellets of corn meal
and -four during the winter, but
most of them leave 1t to the fish
to find their own food during this
season.
These brood fish spawn from four
to eight weeks after they are put
out in the spring, and four months
after incubation the new hatch is
| ready to be marketed. When the
| fish first hatch and begin to develop
! they are very dark in, color, and il
| is only as they grow under the mosi
! favorable conditions that their coats
change to the desired golden shades
The ponds are drained in harvest
! ing the falls crop and all the fish
| are carried to the fish houses which
are equipped with large sorting
tables covered with checked oiicloth
each of the checks being exactly one
inch square. The catch is dumped
| on the tables, all the tadpoles, liz
ards and dark-colored specimens are
removed, and then the goldfish are
sorted and graded as to size and
| counted.