200 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHEEIES 



at the rate of about 300,000 per acre but most of the fish were much 

 smaller than in previous years. The pond was not fertilized but re- 

 ceived a total of 12.5 pounds of a mixture composed of equal parts 

 shrimp meal and white fish meal. This mixture was first cooked 

 and then run through a meat grinder so as to get it into the form of 

 long shreds, but at no time were the fish observed to eat it. 



The adjoining pond, D 2, was stocked with 50 adult bluegills 

 (166 per acre) and 12 adult black crappie. This pond was drained 

 on September 24 and produced 41,297 No. 1 bluegills (136,000 per 

 acre) and 410 fingerling crappie. The small number of crappie 

 was probably due to the fact that the brood fish were in very poor 

 condition when placed in the pond in the spring. Like T> 1 this 

 pond was not fertilized but received a total of 20.7 pounds of the 

 .shrimp meal and whitefish meal mixture at intervals from April 

 25 to September 9. Neither the bluegills nor the crappie were seen 

 to take any of the food. Although with respect to numbers the 

 production in D 2 was less than one-half that in D 1 the fingerlings 

 in the former pond averaged about twice the size of those in the 

 latter. 



The production of fingerlings in D 2 shows clearly that crappie 

 feed on j^oung bluegills to a considerable extent since the stocking 

 intensity with brood fish was about the same in both D 1 and D 2. 

 This is in accord with some of our experiments with crappie, pre- 

 viously described, where it was shown that the bluegill makes a sat- 

 isfactory forage fish for this species. 



The bluegill is also being used successfully at several hatcheries 

 as a forage fish for largemouth bass but our own results have failed 

 to confirm the favorable reports received from other stations. Our 

 experience with this combination has, however, been very limited 

 and future experiments may yield quite different results. Pond D 3 

 (area 0.846 acre) was stocked with 50 adult bass and 75 adult blue- 

 gills. No other forage fish were placed in the pond. All the bass 

 fry hatched in the pond were allowed to remain through the summer 

 along with the brood fish. The pond was drained October 12 and 

 1,587 fingerling bass and 23,373 fingerling bluegill were removed. 

 Since the pond was heavily overstocked with bass it is possible that 

 better results would have been obtained if some of the fry had been 

 removed. 



On account of the favorable results obtained elsewhere, it is 

 planned to conduct further experiments with bluegills in bass ponds. 

 It is not believed, however, that the bluegill w^ill prove as satis- 

 factory a forage fish for bass as the golden shiner. The feeding 

 habits of the bluegill bring it into more direct competition with the 

 bass fingerlings and it is not impossible that the adults may feed on 

 the eggs or small fingerlings. 



From the results of these experiments we may conclude that under 

 favorable conditions a pond stocked with bluegills should produce 

 from 150.000 to 200,000 No. 1 fingerlings per acre. There is still 

 some uncertainty regarding the proper number of brood fish but it 

 is very evident that a high stocking intensity does not result in 

 greater production than when smaller numbers of fish are used. It 

 seems probable that it would be advisable to use even smaller num- 



