Spawning

“ If there is a solitary individual on a nest when disturbed, it may not return to that nest, but to any that has been started, or it may stay in the deep pool below the shallows until evening and then move some distance up-stream. When the nest is large and occupied by several individuals, those that are disturbed may return to any other such nest. We have never seen evidence of one female driving another female out of a spawning-nest ”

“ The fish, as they enter the rivers, may be deterred from entering, or all captured in nets spread entirely across the mouth, and when those that do pass have [98] reached the spawning beds, they are peculiarly exposed to the cruel spear. At night, by this instrument, with the aid of flambeaux, hundreds may be killed and many more wounded and left to perish miserably. If they are to continue in reasonable numbers, nets must not be set close together, the spawning beds must be undisturbed, and the murderous spear utterly prohibited. ”

“ The carp, the baleros, and fishes in general push eagerly into the shallows for the purpose of spawning, and very often thirteen or fourteen males are seen following a single female. When the female deposits her spawn and departs, the males follow on and shed the milt. The greater portion of the spawn gets wasted; because, owing to the fact that the female moves about while spawning, the spawn scatters, or so much of it as is caught in the stream and does not get entangled with some rubbish. For, with the exception of the sheatfish, no fish keeps on guard ”

“ Since the spawning grounds of many kinds of fish are in shallow water, and the fish are at that time most easily caught, it happens that many of the most extensive fisheries are carried on in the spawning season. The delicious little smelts which our neighbors in Maine and New Brunswick send us by the hundred car-loads each winter, packed in little boxes of snow, are always full of eggs—so are the lake white fish, when they are caught, and the shad, and the Potomac herrings, and the cod, and the mullet, and the herring, and in early spring the mackerel. ”

“ Indications of spawning having been observed, the covers are put on the races, and as soon as there are fish in the raceway, the net is gathered up in one hand and the frame held in the other, in such a position as to be put in the grooves as quickly as possible, so as to let none of the fish escape from the race. Go quietly to the spot, and do not walk down the raceway to get to it, but approach from one side and put the net in the grooves as quickly as you can. The water running down will swell the net out to its full length. ”

“ Artificial spawning, fecundation, and hatching, are far more productive. The process is simple and easy: when the female-fish first begins to deposite her eggs, catch her with a small net. It can not be done with bait, for fish will bite nothing at the time of spawning. We recollect, often when a boy, of trying to catch trout out of the brooks in October, where we could see large, beautiful fish, lying lazily in the places from which we had caught many in the summer, and put our bait carefully on every side of them, and they would not bite. ”

“ Many species of fish, as the Salmon, Smelt, and others, in forsaking the deep water, and approaching a suitable spawning station, leave the sea altogether for a time, ascend the rivers and their tributary streams, and, having deposited their eggs, return again to their usual haunts. Even a certain species of fish, inhabiting lakes, as the Roach, betake themselves to the tributary streams, as the most suitable places for spawning. ”

“ They cannot be wanting to spawn, for there is no spawning for at least six months to come. They cannot have spawned early in the preceding or rather present spawning season, gone down, recovered, and returned, for numerous experiments show that the period of return is about three months, and it is only about three months since the earliest fish had begun to spawn in the rivers which these are now ascending. ”

“ As in nature, at best but a comparatively small percentage of the ova are impregnated, and by artificial spawning over ninety per cent. of them may be successfully hatched out, there can be but little doubt as to which is the better way. It is difficult to make sure of catching the fish just at the time they are ripe, so it is advisable to impound them in a fenced-off portion of the river, where they may be got at easily. ”

“ At the close of the spawning season when the nest is seen with no large pebbles at its upper margin, but quite a pile of stones below, it can be known that the former occupants completed their spawning process there; but if many small stones are left at the upper edge and at the sides, and a large pile is not formed at the lower edge, it can be known that the nest was forsaken or the lampreys removed before the spawning process was completed. The stones they move are often twice as heavy as themselves, and are sometimes even three or four times as heavy. ”

“ Once settled, the female fish scoops out a hollow in the sheltering gravel, and is closely attended by her lord. Whilst spawning is proceeding, observe with what care he attends her, and in what evolutions he indulges. He rises and falls, now passing over, now under her, and settling first upon this side, then upon that. Observe, too, how he drives off the young unfertile fish which are ever lying in wait to devour the spawn. The eggs are deposited at intervals in the sand, and when the milt has been fertilised the whole is covered over, there to remain until spring. ”

“ Very little spawning takes place during late winter and spring, i.e. just after minimum sea temperature. Each local race (or species) appears to spawn at a constant time of the year. The date of the annual spawning, and hence the herring fishing season, varies from point to point round the coast. Herrings caught at different places show well-marked differences in appearance and quality, which are evidently due to differences in species and feeding ground. The food value of the herring will depend also upon the time of the year at which spawning occurs. ”

“ Growth and maturation are complicated and confused by a double spawning period. Data give a length of three inches the first twelvemonth, to five inches the second year, and to eight or nine inches the third year, when sexual maturity is attained; but British and foreign observers are not quite in unanimity thereon. It would appear though that in the case of the Baltic as well as British Herring there are two marked spawning seasons, the so-called winter and summer Herrings. ”

“ However, the real importance of an early river has little or no connexion with the periods of the spawning process; because it is not so much the 96breeding fish that are of individual value in winter, as those which, having no intention or requirement to spawn until the following autumn, enter the fresh waters because they have already completed the days of their purification in the sea. ”

“ The period of spawning differs in various rivers from natural causes, such as snow, cold rains, or inclement weather; for, as Trout, like salmon, spawn on gravel beds in shallow water, the cold readily affects them. ”

“ Observations made at various places indicate that whatever the spawning beds may be, spawning will not begin until the temperature of the water has fallen to 54° F. If the fish reach the spawning grounds when the temperature is above 54°, they wait until the water cools down to the required degree. The spawning act extends over several days. ”

“ Hence the spawning time was the most favorable period for profitable operation, and the fishermen, with their characteristic disregard for the future, by incessant fishing practically eliminated natural reproduction. ”

“ A difference in the period of deposition will assuredly cause a difference in the period of hatching, and in this we agree with Mr Scrope; but we think that a late spawning, having the advantage of a higher temperature as the result of a more genial season, will be followed by a more rapid development, and so the difference will not be so great, nor expanded over so many months, as that gentlemen supposes. ”

“ The male, in his turn, lets his milt go over the spawn, and this process goes on for some days, more or less, according to the size of the fish, and consequent quantity of the eggs.
If a strange male interferes, the original one chases him with great fury, and in their combats, frequently inflict great injury upon each other. When the female has spawned, she sets off and leaves the place; the male remains, waiting for another female, and if none comes in twenty-four hours, he goes away in search of another spawning place. ”

“ At other times all is washed away together. In the second place, the gravel of brooks swarms with water-lice (shrimps) and the larvae of aquatic insects, as well as bull-heads and loaches, all of which prey upon the spawn of the Trout and Salmon. In the third place, if you put your spawning-boxes in a brook, you will find it difficult to prevent the escape of the fry when hatched, and you are left in doubt as to the success of your experiment. ”

“ During incubation the eggs are guarded and tended by the parent fish, and hatch in ten days or two weeks, the fry remaining on the nest, guarded by the male fish, for several days, when they disperse to find suitable hiding places, feeding on minute organisms that abound in all natural waters.
Spawning Season
The spawning season of the black bass varies considerably, owing to its extensive range and consequent variation in the temperature of waters. ”

“ If a full female herring is gently squeezed over a vessel of seawater, the eggs will rapidly pour out and sink to the bottom, to which they immediately adhere with so much tenacity that, in half an hour, the vessel may be inverted without their dropping out. When spawning takes place naturally, the eggs fall to the bottom and attach themselves in a similar fashion, but at this time the assembled fish dart wildly about, and the water becomes cloudy with the shed fluid of the milt. ”

“ In some species the eggs are not handled, but the spawning fishes are provided with favorable ponds for spawning purposes, where their eggs are protected from enemies, given suitable temperature, etc. ”

“ The same Herrings, however, do not spawn twice annually, the summer and winter stock being races apart, whose spawning localities essentially differ. Winter spawners frequent inshore brackish waters, whereas summer spawners are more strictly sea-dwellers, coming near the coast, but not into estuaries at spawning season. ”

“ As soon as the fish are ready to spawn, they will ascend from the ponds into the raceway, seeking a place to nest. Then they are ready to be taken out and the spawn expressed. At the entrance of the raceway, there should be grooves to receive a frame, on which is tacked a net of coarse bagging about eight or ten feet long. One corner of this bag should be narrowed, left unsewn, and tied with a string, like the mouth of a meal sack. The race should be covered over in spawning time, as [242] the fish will come under the cover better and are not so likely to be frightened by any one passing. ”

“ He is of opinion that the two great causes of the change of place of animals is the providing of food for themselves and resting places and food for their young. The great supposed migrations of herrings from the poles to the temperate zone, he considers to be only the approach of successive shoals from deep to shallow water, for the purpose of spawning. ”

“ Fish in spawning-time always approach great shallows, or shores covered with weeds, which, in the process of their growth, under the influence of the sunshine, constantly supply pure air to the water in contact with them. ”

“ Of course abundance of spawn occurs in the old beds, but it is never used directly. It is, however, frequently employed to spawn a small bed when virgin spawn cannot be obtained. In this case the small bed devoted to the propagation of spawn is placed in the open air, and covered with straw, and as soon as it is permeated with the spawn it is carried into the caves and used. As the making and spawning of beds is a process continually going on, a bed of this sort must be ready at all times. It is never made into bricks [74] as with us, but simply spread through short, partly-decomposed, manure. ”

“ On the subsidence of the Nile the year before, though the fish retired with the retreating waters, they had first deposited their spawn in the mud upon the banks: and so, when at the usual season the water returns, small fry are rapidly engendered out of the spawn of the preceding year. So much concerning the fish.”
And was the great zoologist Aristotle [877] more accurate in his suggestion as to spawning? “Some surmise that the female becomes impregnated by swallowing the seminal fluid of the male. ”

“ Instead, they continue on the spawning beds, persevering in their efforts to spawn and fertilize more eggs. When one fish of a pair dies, the other seeks or is sought by a new mate. Probably the female never notices the death of the male, as there are nearly always several males fighting around each 'nest.' If there happens to be no salmon in the vicinity when one of a pair dies, the
The Tail of a Spawned-out Female. ”

“ Arrived at the coast, they prepare to cast their spawn. They go to the edge of the water, and suffer the waves to wash twice or thrice over their bodies, and then withdraw to seek a lodging upon the land. After a short time the spawn becomes ready for being deposited, when they again seek the sea-side, and leave the spawn to be brought to maturity by the heat of the sun. Much of the spawn, which exactly resembles the roe of a herring, is devoured by the fishes ”

“ The spawn is exposed to so many dangers, that a very small proportion can ever become fishes, for beside being the constant prey of birds and fishes, a great many nests are made so near the shore, in shallow water, that they are left dry in a few days, as the river goes down. These and the lamprey’s are the only fishes’ nests that I have observed, though the ova of some species may be seen floating on the surface. The breams are so careful of their charge that you may stand close by in the water and examine them at your leisure. ”