21 8 The Life Story of the Fish 



nest, these successive marriages build up quite a family. Ten 

 thousand eggs in one nest is not unusual. 



The hatching period is short. At 72 degrees it is only two 

 days J at 66 degrees, five days. During this time the male 

 remains on guard, driving off all hungry intruders, and 

 spending much time over the nest, which he fans with his 

 fins. The resulting current of water presumably aerates the 

 eggs and keeps them free of fungus, parasites, and other 

 microscopic predators. His care continues until the yolk-sac 

 is absorbed, which takes from one to two weeks depending 

 on the temperature, but as soon as the fry begin to swim he 

 deserts them. Up to this point they have been his joy and 

 pride and the darlings of his heart, but from now on he 

 ceases to recognize them. They are just little fish, and all 

 little fish are good to eat. Parental instinct, at this stage in 

 the evolutionary scale, has made a brave beginning, but it 

 lacks endurance. It breaks down under temptation. 



The little fish are now over half an inch long. They live 

 on larvae and tiny crustaceans. By autumn they have reached 

 a length of from two to six or even eight inches, and are 

 eating insects and the fry of smaller fish. Within a year the 

 more precocious ones may attain a length of ten inches, but 

 it is the end of the second year before most of them have 

 reached the eight- to twelve-inch range. Under highly 

 favorable conditions they mature and spawn at the end of 

 the first year, but more often it is at the end of the second, 

 and sometimes of the third. 



What we have described above is the family life of the 

 bass when all goes smoothly. However, aside from the mis- 

 haps and mortalities which all fish are subject to, there are 

 two natural phenomena which may cause disaster to the 

 bass. Roily water affects the eggs, and may kill them. In 

 this case the father builds another nest and begets another 

 family, but recurrence or continuance of the condition may 



