OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE NATURAL 



FOOD OF SMALL-MOUTH BLACK BASS FRY 



AT MAMMOTH SPRING, ARK. 



By Stephen G. Worth 



It is only for the good that may follow and from no 

 disposition to vaunt myself that this paper is written. I 

 have been connected with small-mouth black bass operations 

 but eight months, and thus am but a beginner. Below I 

 set forth briefly a few observations that are to the point, 

 I trust. 



( 1 ) Apparently the rooted or fixed aquatic plants — 

 Myriophyllum, etc. — abounding in the ponds of the Mam- 

 moth Spring fish-cultural establishment do not contribute 

 except indirectly to the production of the minute crustacean 

 life which constitutes the food of black bass in ages from 

 fry to No. l^/^ fingerlings, as it has been observed that 

 fry in rearing ponds yield better results when the ponds 

 are previously drawn, the vegetation being removed by 

 rake and pitchfork and the pond bottom exposed to air 

 and sunshine effects some days before refiooding and the 

 introduction of the fry. 



(2) No solution of the source of the crustacean diet 

 was arrived at except through the book of Dr. Hugh M. 

 Smith entitled "J^P^^^se Goldfish." 



(3) I am satisfied, since reading Dr. Smith's chapter 

 on goldfish food and feeding, that free moving, microscopic 

 plants, known to naturalists as algae, comprise the food of 

 said crustaceans, and that pond bottoms exposed through 

 the winter months produce more crustaceans than ponds 

 (fed from spring at temperature of 59° F. ) that are kept 

 full of water through the cold months with the "water 

 moss" growth undisturbed. 



(4) Ponds producing most "bugs," or Daphnia, terms 



