ELDRIDGE ET AL.: BIOENERGETICS AND GROWTH OF STRIPED BASS 



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TISSUE DRY WEIGHT (ng) 



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 r-088 



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DAYS AETER FERTILIZATION 



Figure 8.— Oxygen consumption of striped bass embryos and 

 larvae plotted against assimilated tissue dry weight (above) 

 and age (below). 



In an attempt to compare our laboratory de- 

 rived estimates of daily food ration with those 

 from wild striped bass larvae we obtained stom- 

 ach content data of 1,468 field-caught larvae 

 (sized to 11.9 mm SL) spawned from 1971 to 

 1973. The summarized data of Table 7 show wild 

 larvae were smaller (4.0 to 4.9 mm) than labora- 

 tory larvae (6.1 mm) at the time of first feeding. 

 This is possibly due to differences in preserva- 

 tion methods. When wild larvae attained sizes of 

 7.0 to 7.9 mm, over 75% were feeding. This agrees 

 with our laboratory observation that over 80% of 

 the 2-wk-old and older larvae (>7.0 mm SL) fed 

 actively in food concentrations of 0.50 Artemia/ 

 ml and greater. The overall average of feeding 

 incidence for wild larvae was 70.5%. Wild larvae 

 also displayed preference for cladocerans, Cy- 

 clops sp. and Eurytemora sp., which, together, 

 accounted for 89% of all food consumed. Other 

 studies of striped bass from east coast nursery 

 areas showed that the largest part of the larval 

 diet consisted of small Crustacea and microplank- 

 ton (Meshaw 1969; Humphries and Cumming 

 1972). 



Using these data we calculated daily caloric 

 rations, according to the previously described 

 formula, for each size category of wild larvae 

 (Table 7). Caloric equivalences for the different 

 food types were obtained from the literature 

 (Richman 1958; Cummins 1967; Clutter and 

 Theilacker 1971; Laurence 1976; Sitts 1978). In- 



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