Report of the commissioner for 1878 : part VI.

  • United States Fish Commission
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioner for 1878 : part VI. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1138/1174 page 958
    scratching up everything they came in contact with and would be con- stantly rusting. Trays of this width fit well in troughs 12f inches wide. Their length may be equal to their width, as I prefer, or greater. The wire-cloth heretofore commonly used is woven of annealed iron wire, in square meshes. This answers admirably when the wires are from j- to -g- inch apart, (not wider than if brook-trout eggs are in hand,) so long as the fishes remain in the egg. But as soon as hatched they begin to poke their heads and tails down through the meshes, or some- times their sacks are drawn through, and being unable to extricate themselves, they perish miserably. If, therefore, square meshes are to be used they should be very small,—not over inch wide. This sort of wire-cloth has, however, still this slight drawback,—that while the eggs are hatching the picking must be done in the trough, or if the trays are taken out the young alevins must come out into the air also. There is not, to be sure, much danger of injuring the fry by exposure for a moment to the air, but a good deal of extra care is involved, and it is much better not to have to take them from the water at all. These little troubles are all avoided by using cloth with a long mesh, (see Fig. 7,) —for Atlantic and land-locked salmon a mesh inch wide and § to f- inch long,—through which the soft bodies of the fishes easily slide as soon as they have broken the shell, while the whole eggs are retained upon the trays and can at any time be lifted out without lifting the fish. Any one who is so situated as to get wire woven to order had better adopt the long meshes, woven of wire as small as can be well worked, which may be left to the judgment of the weaver. If, however, this cannot be flad, then
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image