Family SERRANIDAE 



THE SEA BASS FAMILY 



This family includes a large number of marine fishes. Several species 

 are found in fresh water. Some authors divide the species in this family 

 into several families, placing the local species under the family 

 Moronidae. 



Members of the sea bass family are moderately deep-bodied and 

 more or less compressed. The dorsal fins contain spines. The ventral 

 fins are thoracic, and each usually has 1 spine and 5 soft rays. The anal 

 spines if present number 3. The lateral line does not extend on to the 

 caudal fin. The members of this family differ from those of the Centrar- 

 chid family in a number of characters. They possess well-developed 

 pseudobranchiae (gill-like structures on the inside of the opercle) 

 which are very minute in the Centrarchids. The ribs are mostly at- 

 tached to the ends of transverse processes instead of on the body 

 of the vertebrae. They possess a small plate of bone — the suboccular 

 shelf — which extends under the eyeball from the second circumorbital. 

 The fresh water species lack the supplementary maxillary bone. 



Several genera and many species occur in this family. Some live in 

 the sea and enter rivers to spawn. The two species found in Minnesota 

 and neighboring states are strictly fresh-water fishes. 



Key to Common Species of Family SERRANIDAE 



Dorsal fins separate; anal fin III, 1 1-13 



White Bass, Lepibema chrysops (Rafinesque) 



Dorsal fins slightly joined; anal fin III, 10 



Yellow Bass, Morone interritpta Gill 



GENUS Lepibe?na Rafinesque 



This genus contains one species, which occurs in the Mississippi 

 drainage as far north as southern Minnesota. 



WHITE BASS (Striped Bass, Silver Bass) 

 Lepibema chrysops (Rafinesque) 



The general color of the white bass (Figure 36) is silvery with yellow- 

 ish under parts; the sides are streaked with narrow, dusky, longitudinal 

 lines, five of which are above the lateral line. The body is compressed 

 and deep; the back is elevated; the head is rather conical and scaly. The 

 mouth is medium sized and horizontal; the jaws are about equal in 

 length; the maxillary extends to the middle of the eye with no supple- 

 mental bone. There is a deep notch in the subopercular bone and the 



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