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Artificial Feeding of Whitefish Fry
Author(s) -
Butler George E.
Publication year - 1941
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1940)70[180:afowf]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - fishery , hatching , biology , daphnia pulex , natural food , plankton , coregonus clupeaformis , zooplankton , fish <actinopterygii> , environmental science , zoology , ecology , daphnia , food science
Through experiments conducted at the Winnipegosis and Dauphin River hatcheries in Manitoba, it has been determined that the artificial feeding of whitefish fry (Coregonus clupeaformis) is of value in those localities where the eggs hatch early in the spring and fry must otherwise be planted while the lakes are covered with ice. At that time the existence of an adequate supply of food organisms is uncertain. Various artificial foods were tried in the experiments but the most satisfactory results were obtained with (1) natural plankton (principally Daphnia pulex), and ground beef heart, and (2) natural plankton alone. During the hatching period three successive batches of fry may be held in tanks and fed for a 10‐day period before they are released. Fry gain in length, weight and viability during the period of artificial feeding and are better fitted for survival in the natural environment. Through the delay in planting, the supply of available natural food and the temperature of the water in the lake environment are enabled to become more favorable by the time the fry are ready to be transferred from the tanks to the lake.