THE GAME BREEDER 



105 



BLACK BASS BREEDING. 



Hon. John W. Titcomb, 

 Fish Culturist for New York. 



Nearly all species of fishes distributed 

 by the Conservation Commission are sus- 

 ceptible of propagation by artificial meth- 

 ods and can be produced in numbers 

 limited only by the funds available for 

 fish culture operations. 



The eggs of both the large mouthed 

 and small mouthed black basses and 

 allied species cannot be artificially ma- 

 nipulated, and for its supplies of such 

 fishes the commission must depend upon 

 the natural reproduction of brood fish 

 held in ponds prepared for the purpose. 



The cultivation of these fishes therefore 

 consists in providing ponds which shall 

 give to the maximum number of breeding 

 fish and their young all the essential con- 

 ditions of a natural environment while 

 at the same time protecting them (so far 

 as possible) from their enemies. 



During the early stages of their exist- 

 ence young bass in breeding ponds are 

 exposed to dangers of many kinds, just 

 as they are in the larger waters of their 

 natural habitat. 



Snakes, frogs, turtles, various water 

 insects, fish eating birds and mammals, 

 all are destructive to the fry, while the 

 young of the same school prey upon the 

 weaker ones. 



The natural spawning period extends 

 over six or eight weeks, and the earlier 

 broods of fry prey upon their younger 

 brethren. 



The losses from cannibalism among the 

 little basses are undoubtedly greater in 

 the confines of artificial breeding ponds 

 than among the little basses hatched in 

 larger waters. 



The degree of success attained in such 

 work is also governed largely by the state 

 of the weather and other natural condi- 

 tions beyond the control of the commis- 

 sion. 



Located, as they are, along the shoal 

 margins of the ponds the nests receive 



the full effect of atmospheric changes. A 

 sudden fall in temperature will often 

 cause the parent fish to desert their nests, 

 and as the eggs and fry are extremely 

 sensitive they are frequently killed or 

 their development injuriously retarded by 

 the cold. 



Another unfavorable feature resulting 

 from the location of the nests in shallow 

 water is that it subjects them to the full 

 force of surface drainage and washings, 

 following heavy rains. 



Roily water is extremely injurious to 

 the ova and young of the black bass, and 

 as heavy rains and sudden temperature 

 changes are conditions which must be ex- 

 pected during the season of the year 

 when these fishes spawn, the results of 

 the commission's pond cultural operations 

 are hazardous and uncertain in the ex- 

 treme. 



One year a station may have a good 

 output, and the next year, under apoar- 

 ently similar conditions, very few \ ung 

 fish are produced. 



Under most favorable seasonal condi- 

 tions the commission undertakes to sup- 

 ply to applicants only sufficient young 

 bass for a brood stock, and in a bad sea- 

 son like the one just past, it is impossible 

 to supply even a brood stock to many 

 applicants. 



A brood stock means from one to three 

 cans of little bass from three-quarters to 

 two inches in length, the number to a 

 can varying from 250 to 1,000, it being 

 impossible to carry more than one-fourth 

 as many of the three-quarter inch bass 

 as of the two inch fingerlings. 



The applicant, who has been accus- 

 tomed to receive pike, perch or yellow 

 perch in million lots, or some species of 

 trout in lots of several thousands, is 

 naturally disappointed. 



The only proper and economic solution 

 of this situation is to afford the basses 



