CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 73 



Through the friendly cooperation of the Fresno Sportsmen's Club 

 and Harold K. Fox, its president, a site was procured free of charge 

 in a deserted gravel pit near Fresno and adjacent to the San Joaquin 

 River. The construction consisted of a series of dirt ponds holding 

 about eight acres of water. There was a .stock pond, a spawning pond 

 and seven rearing ponds. In addition, six small concrete daphnia 

 ponds were built. Pipes Avhich supply M^ater and afford drainage were 

 connected with the river. An electrically driven pump formed a part 

 of the equipment, and a small pump house served as a laboratory. 



Leakage soon developed and two of the larger ponds had to be 

 abandoned. Further leakage also causes an unexpected amount of 

 pumping and it also seriously interferes with proper fertilization of 

 the brood ponds. 



Fertilization of the water is required to produce an abundant 

 growth of single-celled algae (minute green plants) upon which daphnia 

 or other microscopic animals may feed. The latter serve in their turn 

 as food for the little bass. Brown found after much experimentation 

 that a mixture of soy bean meal and acid phosphate produced the best 

 fertilizer. He also discovered that the hot climate was unfavorable to 

 daphnia, a minute crustacean commonly used for food in the east, and 

 that a very similar little animal known as moina could be propagated 

 as needed. 



In the process of casting about for suitable fish food of larger 

 size, red shiners were brought from San Diego, goldfish, mosquito fish, 

 native minnows and sunfish were experimentally propagated or studied. 

 At last, it fell to the lot of the bluegill to do its part, and now these 

 fish of all sizes and ages are available for the always hungry bass. 



In short, a system of propagation has been experimentally estab- 

 lished by means of which a food supply depending upon a chain 

 of complex operations is made available under the particular climatic 

 conditions of the location. 



Various pests have appeared to deplete the pond fish— herons, 

 large and small, kingfishers and mergansers. A handy shotgun, more 

 noisy than efficient, kept these at bay, but it seemed unwise to use it 

 on the biggest and worst offender, a local angler caught red-handed. At 

 one time, countless numbers of tadpoles hatched out and seriously 

 threatened the supply of moina which was intended for the small bass. 



The actual expen.ses incurred in the year's work amounts to 

 $4,138.62. This includes supervision and labor (foreman and part- 

 time assistant), supplies and miscellaneous charges — not a great deal 

 when everything is considered. About 40,000 fish were hatched. Six 

 thousand eight hundred seventy-six bass measuring 2i to 3 inches were 

 planted in favorable situations where future observation is possible. 

 Two thousand three hundred fifty of these were successfully shipped to 

 the region of San Diego, 520 miles, to test the possibility of long 

 distance transportation. The loss at the ponds is largely traceable to 

 cannibalism, which was difScult to control as the hatching extended 

 over an abnormally long period. Extremes of temperature occurring 

 over short intervals of time interrupted hatching and destroyed fish. 



The net results are a carefully established background for future 

 work and a demonstration that small-mouth black bass may be propa- 

 gated here. — J. 0. Snyder, Divimon of Fish and Game, San Francisco. 

 November 20, 1933. 



