August 2021 - 34

Walleye eggs were incubated in jars for up to two weeks before
they hatched. (WGFD photo)
bottom of the tank. Alsager said that enabled
the fry to be evenly distributed in the tank, to
start eating food and, in Alsager's words, " get
their grow on. "
Once the rearing portion was complete, wallKris
Holmes, Game and Fish spawning coordinator, extracts eggs from a female walleye at Buffalo Bill Reservoir.
(Photo by Joe Skorupski/WGFD)
of water which was stirred with a feather for
about 1 minute. Holmes said walleye eggs are
adhesive and the mud prevents the eggs from
sticking together during transport.
From there the eggs were shipped to Speas
where they were incubated in jars for 7 to 14 days
before they hatched. The key to that, Alsager said,
was keeping the water temperature at 50 degrees.
Walleye fry are about 7 millimeters long but
can feed on their own. This year Alsager said
160,000 walleye fry - the number of fry in 2020
was just more than 72,000 - were placed into
specialized tanks with turbidity injections of clay
and specialized spray bars to break the tension of
the water. Those things were done because walleye
fry must ingest air to fill their air bladders. They
need the surface tension of the water broken or
they don't have enough strength to swallow small
bubbles of air to fill their air bladders, Alsager
said. Walleye fry also react positively to light for
the first 21 to 28 days of life. Turbidity is used to
refract light evenly throughout the tank as well
as prevent light from reflecting off the sides and
34 | August 2021
eye were stocked each of the last two years in
mid-to-late June and early July. In 2020 the size
of the walleye stocked were between 1.3 and 3
inches long. This year the size ranged from 1.31.6
inches long.
A challenge for Game and Fish with this project
was location, not just where but how.
Campbell said most cool/warm-water fish
rearing units in other states are outside in ponds
where natural forage is used to grow the fish.
Because of Wyoming's geographic location and
the time of year Game and Fish will rear the fish,
weather could make that very difficult.
" Some years things may work great, but other
years when those late spring weather fronts come
in, we could lose all of our walleye production, "
Campbell said.
Speas is the largest of Game and Fish's hatcheries
and rearing stations. A new facility wasn't
built for this trial, but modifications to an existing
building were done so it could be completed
indoors. An isolation facility at Speas that used
to be one room was made into two. Some equipment
had to be purchased and some things rearranged.
This year, the purchase of a self-cleaning
larval tank helped double production potential
and allowed workers to evaluate the labor portion
of the job.

August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2021

August 2021 - 1
August 2021 - 2
August 2021 - 3
August 2021 - 4
August 2021 - 5
August 2021 - 6
August 2021 - 7
August 2021 - 8
August 2021 - 9
August 2021 - 10
August 2021 - 11
August 2021 - 12
August 2021 - 13
August 2021 - 14
August 2021 - 15
August 2021 - 16
August 2021 - 17
August 2021 - 18
August 2021 - 19
August 2021 - 20
August 2021 - 21
August 2021 - 22
August 2021 - 23
August 2021 - 24
August 2021 - 25
August 2021 - 26
August 2021 - 27
August 2021 - 28
August 2021 - 29
August 2021 - 30
August 2021 - 31
August 2021 - 32
August 2021 - 33
August 2021 - 34
August 2021 - 35
August 2021 - 36
August 2021 - 37
August 2021 - 38
August 2021 - 39
August 2021 - 40
August 2021 - 41
August 2021 - 42
August 2021 - 43
August 2021 - 44
August 2021 - 45
August 2021 - 46
August 2021 - 47
August 2021 - 48
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