A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2)Jordan, David Starr
History
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2)
Jordan, David Starr
Fishes; Fishes -- Bibliography; Zoology -- History
"From the fact that the examples obtained were of comparatively the
same age, it may be justly inferred that the period of infection to
which the fish are subjected must be a short one. I did not discover
the final host, but it is almost certain to be one or more of the
fish-eating species of birds which visit that region, and presumably
one of which, in its migrations, pays but a brief visit to this
particular locality. This parasite was found only in the young suckers
which inhabit a warm tributary of Witch Creek. They were not found in
the large suckers of the lake. These young _Catostomi_ were found in
a single school, associated with the young of the chub (_Leuciscus
lineatus_), in a stream whose temperature was 95° F. near where it
joined a cold mountain brook whose temperature was 46° F. We seined
several hundred of these young suckers and chubs, ranging in length
from 6 to 19 centimeters. The larger suckers were nearly all infested
with these parasites, the smaller ones not so much, and the smallest
scarcely at all. Or, to give concrete examples: Of 30 fish ranging
in length from 14 to 19 centimeters, only one or two were without
parasites; of 45 specimens averaging about 10 centimeters in length,
15 were infested and 30 were not; of 65 specimens averaging about
9 centimeters in length, 10 were infested and 55 were not; of 62
specimens less than 9 centimeters in length, 2 were infested and 60
were not. None of the chubs were infested with this parasite.
"The conditions under which these fish were found are worthy of passing
notice. The stream which they occupied flowed with rather sluggish
current into a swift mountain stream, which it met almost at right
angles. The school of young chubs and suckers showed no inclination to
enter the cold water, even to escape the seine, but would dart around
the edge of the seine, in the narrow space between it and the bank,
in preference, apparently, to taking to the colder water. When not
disturbed by the seine they would swim up near to the line which marked
the division between the cold and the warm water, and seemed to be
gazing with open mouth and eyes at the trout which occasionally darted
past in the cold stream. The trout appeared to avoid the warm water,
while the chubs and suckers appeared to avoid the cold water. It may
be that what the latter really avoided was the special preserve of the
trout, since large chubs and suckers are found in abundance in the
lake, which is quite cold, a temperature of 40° F. having been taken by
us at a depth of 124 feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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