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technique. Mean viability for the two hatching methods was <br />60.7%. <br />As with razorback'suckers, Marsh and Pisano (in press) <br />determined that the optimum hatching temperature for Colorado <br />squawfish was near 700F. Heated well water flows through the <br />Heaths at three gpm and through the jars at one to two gpm, <br />depending on the number of eggs in the jar. Colorado squawfish <br />eggs also hatch between 96 and 144 hours with peak hatching at <br />about 120 hours. Hatching success per viability expectations <br />was excellent but we encountered severe fry loss due to "bunching" <br />in the square corners of the holding tanks. Prior to swimup <br />the fry would bunch together in piles up to two inches deep that <br />extended outward five or six inches. If not dispersed the <br />majority of the fry in these piles would suffocate; this occurred <br />at night when the fry were unattended. Following swimup the fry <br />are stocked in rearing ponds. We have stocked fry at rates <br />varying from 25,000 to 80,000 per surface acre; as with razorback <br />sucker fry, Colorado squawfish fry stocking rates have not been <br />finalized. <br />In 1983 we spawned 26 Colorado squawfish females; 25 <br />domestic brood (Toney, 1974) and one wild brood. Fecundity of <br />the domestic brood fish (mean wt = 3.09 lbs) ranged from 57,766 <br />to 113,341 with a mean of 77,436. The wild female (9.6 lbs) <br />produced 242,981 eggs. The average number of eggs per pound of <br />body weight was 25,241 for the domestic fish and 25,310 for the <br />wild fish. A total of 2,178,883 eggs were taken from the 26 <br />fish spawned. We stocked 234,000 fry in rearing ponds and returned <br />160,000 advanced fry (68%). We stocked 120,000 advanced fry and <br />harvested 87,153 three-inch fingerlings for a 72% return. Feed <br />conversion for Colorado squawfish was 3.90. The fingerlings were <br />nosetagged with coded wire tags and stocked in selected ground- <br />water ponds and backwaters of the Colorado River near Grand <br />Junction, Colorado.