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should be separated. If they are not well supplied with food they are very likely to try and eat each other, that is to say, the largest will try to eat the smallest.
CHAPTER XI
THE REARING OF THE RAINBOW TROUT, AMERICAN BROOK TROUT, AND CHAR
As the methods used in hatching out the ova and rearing the young fish are very similar in the case of different species of trout to those I have already described in dealing with the common trout (Salmo fario), I will confine myself to pointing out the most marked differences in the habits of such species as are suitable to our waters, and which are likely to be of use to the fish culturist. The salmon- or sea-trout will be dealt with under salmon.
First and foremost among the trout, excluding of course our own brown trout, I put the rainbow trout (Salmo irideus). There are several varieties of this species, but that which is now being so freely introduced into many waters in England is the McCloud River rainbow (S. irideus, var. shasta). As I have before stated, the rainbow spawns long after the S. fario. It therefore will give the fly-fishermen good sport after the season for the common trout is over. It is a very free feeder, and grows more rapidly than our trout; great care must therefore be taken to give it plenty of food. I would draw my readers' attention particularly to this fact as to the feeding and quick-growing qualities of the rainbow, for they make it, if possible, even more necessary that the water into which they are turned should contain a good supply of food than it was in the case of the common trout; though even in the case of the common trout, this is quite the most important consideration in stocking a water with fish.
Another advantage possessed by the rainbow is, that it is less liable to the attacks of fungus than any other of the Salmonidæ. Though, of course, this is not such an important consid