Show MATERNAL INSTINCT OF FISH Th Mother LOT of Other Crentnrei Ahient to There HtlnKi The female fish has no maternal in Uucts whatever said J NevIn of Madison superintendent of the State fish hatcheries In fact the fish IB the most inhuman creature in existence exist-ence that is of tho animals which have any degree of Intelligence at all Perhaps It Is well that It Is BO for If the parent fish took earn of their young as other creatures do the waters I of tho earth would be filled with them in n very short time Under natural conditions not one egg In n million ever becomes n fish a year old As nil example I have seen female brook trout go up Into the spawning places nnd spawn their cgs and then turnaround turn-around and deliberately cat them For the past few years I linvo been much Interested tn experimenting with bass and studying their ways Here the male parent has some mnternnl instincts apparently lIe builds tho nest for the feninlp some little pocket with a gravel bottom protected from the strong current but with plenty of fresh water and then hugs or pushes tho fenmb Into It limn eggs arc spawned by till fomalc who swims away amid leaves them to their fate The male fertilizes the eggs and then for n few days watches over them fanning them occasionally to Insure a circulation of fresh water and keeping keep-ing off other fish who would devour the eggs The mimic fish have been known to follow the little fry for several sev-eral days protecting them until they were able to earn for themselves I have seen n school of say 1500 bass fry devoured In five minutes by a few sun bass 01 perch minnows I Under the carp of the fish hatcheries from fifty to ninetylive per cent of i the eggs became fish fry How ninny of the fry live to be n year old or so after they are planted In the streams It Is very hard to determine It depends de-pends so greatly upon conditions that no reliable estimates can be made Mllwnukee Wisconsin |