The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-09-05
Finds Long
Sought Answer
To Problem
Worked Out At Ii b by
Fish Hatchery by
Elmer Phillips.
HIGHLY IMPORTANT
TO FISH CULTURISTS

III + 1Od VU11 u MD -
A problem that fish culturists have
never been able to solve has finally
been nraveled in the state fish hatch
cry at Libby, and the credit for solving
this heretofore unsolvable problem
must 60 to Elmer Phillips, state super
intendent Of fisheries. Mr.. Phillips,
until his recent promotion to the posi-
ton Of state superintendent of fish
cries, was superintendent of the fish
hatchery at Libby and here he con-
Quoted experiments over many long
months that have finally resulted in
the unravelling of the riddle.
The Problem.
Heretofore it has been impossible for
fish culturists to raise grayling fry to
size large enough to liberate in lakes
and streams. The trouble has been
that it has been impossible to find a
food on which the young grayling
would thrive. This is the problem that
has been solved by Phillips He has
found the long sought food for the
young fry, has experimental with it
over a series Of months and is produc-
ing entirely satisfactory results.
Mr.. Phillips was in Libby last Satur-
dav Let him tell his own story
After studying this problem for
long time" said Phillips, Il became
convinced that the natural food for the
tiny grayling fry was what might be
termed a microscopic water flea,
known to scientists as daphnia. These
are so small that the adult is only
about half as large as pin head After
getting the bunch that the young gray
lings would feed on the daphnia,
spent many long hours watching them
through a magnifying glass in troughs
in the Libby hatchery Through this
study / became convinced that the
adult daphnia were too large for the
small grayling to feed on, and SO the
problem arose of devising some means
whereby we could separate the larger
or adult daphnia from the smaller ones
and thus feed into the troughs only the
smaller daphnia; in other words, daph
MIA of a size on which the tiny gray
ling could feed This was how we
solved that problem, but first perhaps
we should say that the one big prob
lem on which ichthylogist have worked
so long was to find food that would
take care of the grayling fry from the
time they absorbed the egg sack up
to such timeA as they would be large
erough ey ffberate. Up to the time the
egg sack is absorbed, the fry lives on
nourishment contained in the egg sack.
When that is absorbed, other food must
be supplied.
How 1t Was Done.
I'VE had to find some method by
which we could screen out the larger
daplnia, allowing the smaller ones to
pass and thus become suitable food for
the fry To accomplish this con-
tinued Mr. Phillips, I'VE placed
nematode screen in one end of.
trough This is a fine brass screen.
We then placed the daphnia above the
screen SO that the passage of the water
through the trough would carry the
daphnia against this screen. The
larger ones would be caught by it, the
smaller ones passing through. These
were again caught by another screen,
a muslin screen. These were small
enough so that the little graylings
could feed on them--and our prob
lens was largely solved
an my investigations / noticed that
the grayling fry do not swim through
the water in horizontal position as do
most fish, but rather in an almost per-
pendicular position, never going to the
bottom for food. This convinced me
that the suitable food, whatever it was.
must be suspended in the water Of its
own nature. The daphnia met that re-
quirement.
I'VE have been feeding grayling fry
on the daphnia at the Libby hatchery
for a number of weeks" said Phillips,
and are meeting with wonderful sue
cess. am very much convinced that
we have solved the problem that has
puzzled fish culturists SO long. A care
full count shows that we have raised
81 per cent of our -grayling fry to
lingering size and that is the answer
to the problem 1t might also be of
interest in this connection to state that
we are now using at the Libby hatch
cry the daphnia as food for all species
of trout, and the young fry are thriv-
ing marvelously on this food. 1t would
appear that the daphnia is not only the
natural food for graylings but is also
fine nourishment for all of our young
trout
after we had reached the conclusion
that the daphnia were the proper feed
for the grayling fry, another problem
faced us" said Phillips "T'hat was to
devise some method whereby we could
gather the daphnia in quantity. This
is how we solved that problem
Unlimited Supply of Food
1--WE took an iron hoop about four
feet in diameter and fastened to it wolfe
cloth, making a sieve something of the
shape of the stockings that are seen
on all landing fields to indicate the
direction of the wind to pilots who are
landing their planes. At the other end
of the wolfe cloth we attached gallon