Fish egg incubator

Claim 1

A fish egg incubator comprising: a. a trough having two ends and containing a rugose layer at its bottom; b. a screen or screens in said trough located directly above said rugose bottom layer and spaced therefrom and adapted to have fish eggs placed thereon; c. the said trough and screens forming a first trough and screen assembly; d. the screen having openings slightly smaller than the fish eggs whereby the latter are retained in said screen; e. first housing means having sides capable of substantially shielding out light for housing said trough and screen combination; and f. access means in one of the sides of said housing means for providing access to its interior; g. baffle means near one end of said trough to direct a flow of water through and along said rugose layer and whereby water flows through and along said screen; h. water overflow means at the other end of said trough, whereby fry resulting from the incubated eggs pass over the water overflow means; i. means for directing a further flow of water on said fry; and j. means comprising a vessel containing water for receiving the fry after they pass over the water overflow means.

Claim 11

A method for hatching fish eggs to fry which comprises: a. placing fish eggs on a plurality of screens having openings somewhat smaller than the eggs; b. placing at least one screen with its associated eggs in a trough having a rugose bottom layer; c. spacing the screen and eggs a short distance from the rugose layer; d. repeating steps (b) and (c) to form a plurality of trough and screen assemblies; e. mounting the screen and trough assemblies one above the other; f. closing said trough and screen assemblies to shut out any light; g. flowing a stream of water through and along the screens, and downwardly from one trough and screen assembly to the other by overflow from the troughs; h. hatching the eggs to alevins; i. permitting the alevins to fall through the screen into the rugose layer; j. permitting the alevins to mature into fry in interstices on the rugose layer; k. moving the fry out of the troughs with the overflow water; l. separating the fry from the overflow water by screening means; m. directing an additional flow of water on said separated fry; n. dropping said fry vertically together with said overflow and additional water into a fry collector means containing water, and o. periodically removing the fry from the collector means without admitting light to the screen and trough assemblies.

Claim 12

A method for hatching fish eggs to fry which comprises: a. placing fish eggs on a plurality of screens having openings somewhat smaller than the eggs; b. placing at least one screen with its associated eggs in a trough having a rugose bottom layer; c. spacing the screen and eggs a short distance from the rugose layer; d. repeating steps (b) and (c) to form a plurality of trough and screen assemblies; e. mounting the screen and trough assemblies one above the other; f. closing said trough and screen assemblies to shut out any light; g. flowing a stream of water through and along the screens, and downwardly from one trough and screen assembly to the other by overflow from the troughs; h. hatching the eggs to alevins; i. permitting the alevins to fall through the screen into the rugose layer; j. permitting the alevins to mature into fry in interstices on the rugose layer; k. moving the fry out of the troughs with the overflow water; l. separating the fry from the overflow water by screening means; m. directing an additional flow of water on said separated fry; n. dropping said fry vertically together with said overflow and additional water into a fry collector means containing water, and o. periodically removing the fry from the collector means without admitting light to the screen and trough assemblies.