PROGRESS IN HATCHING STRIPED BASS 



By S. G. Worth, 

 u. s. bureau of fisheries, mammoth spring, arkansas. 



Twenty-five years ago (Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission for 1884. p. 229) official view was expressed that the 

 experts in fish cnltnre wonld easily care for and develop with 

 slight loss the eggs of the striped bass (Rocciis liiicatus), 

 and that the real difficulty had been not so much in the hatch- 

 ing as in the finding of a place where the mature fish could 

 be obtained with any certainty. Experience has demon- 

 strated, however, that apologies have followed all attempts 

 to hatch the eggs of striped bass, because of the disappoint- 

 ingly small product in fry. As I have, at last, overcome the 

 difficulties in hatching this species so that any given lot of 

 eggs may be hatched with entire satisfaction, I herewith 

 present the facts which mark the progress in hatching to date. 

 May, 1909. 



Eggs of striped bass are easily hatched, as in pans of 

 water, on wet trays, and in jars, but the rupturing of the yolk 

 sacs subsequent to hatching has been a constant cause of 

 heavy loss, the story of which is told in the floating pads or 

 rafts of amber colored oil on the surface of tanks containing 

 the fry. The sacs are almost as easily ruptured as the walls 

 of a soap bubble. 



The McDonald jar, as equipped with its discharge tube of 

 glass and rubber, and the fry required to pass into the frv- 

 tank through this, gives almost negative results with striped 

 bass because the volume of water for these eggs — but one 

 quart a minute — is insufficient to keep the rubber discharge 

 tube filled. Hence the fry turn sommersaults in the passage 

 down the incline to the tank, and are too badly shaken up to 

 survive even though the sacs are not actually ruptured. 



