HABITS AND CULTURE OF THE BLACK BASS. 
41 
CULTURE OF BLACK BASS. 
Ponds and, stockfish. — After some experimenting all our ponds, both for stock fish 
and fry, are built on the model of a natural pond. There is a central deeper portion 
or kettle about 6 feet deep, and around the shore a shallow area where the water is 
about 2 feet deep. The bottom is the natural sand, and water plants are allowed to 
grow up in the ponds. All ponds are supplied with brook water, and silt from this 
furnishes a rich soil for the aquatic plants. The water of these ponds contains 
Daphnia, Bosmina, Corix, and other small aquatic forms in great numbers. These 
furnish food for the bass fry. The ponds run in size from 120 feet by 190 feet to 
100 feet by 100 feet. 
At first we were unable to feed the stock fish on liver, but after a time we found 
that by cutting the liver into strips about the size and shape of a large angleworm 
and by throwing the strips into the water with the motion that one uses in skipping 
stones they wriggle like a worm in sinking and are then readily taken. The liver 
must be fresh. If bass are fed on liver alone they do not come out of winter 
quarters in good condition. Of eleven nests made by bass thus fed only three pro- 
duced fry. Although eggs were laid in all, they seemed to lack vitality, owing to 
the poor condition of the parent fish, and in eight of the nests the eggs died. 
In order to bring the fish through the winter in good condition it is necessary to 
begin feeding minnows in September and to continue this until the fish go into 
winter quarters. The bass eat minnows until they go into winter quarters, after 
which they take no food until spring. The minnows are left in the ponds over 
winter, so that the bass, when they come out of winter quarters, find a plentiful 
supply, which lasts them until the spawning season. At this time the minnows are 
seined from the pond, as their presence interferes with the spawning. Before this, 
however, some of the minnows have spawned, and their fry later serve the young- 
bass as food. Bass fed in this way come out of winter quarters in fine condition 
and their eggs are found to be hardy. 
Artificial fertilization. — During the first two or three seasons of our work 
numerous attempts were made at artificial fertilization, but only twice with success. 
On one occasion the female was seined from the nest after she had begun to spawn. 
She could then be readily stripped. The male was cut open and the eggs were 
fertilized with the crushed testes. About 75 per cent of the eggs hatched on a wire 
tray in running water, the eggs being fanned clean every day with a feather. 
In the second case the fish were seined while spawning, and it was found that 
in the case of one female pressure on the abdomen caused a reddish papilla to 
protrude from the vent. This had the appearance of a membrane closing the vent. 
It was pinched off, and the female Avas then stripped readily and the eggs fertilized 
and hatched. 
Pond culture. — Having abandoned artificial fertilization, our attention Avas 
turned to pond culture, and this we have carried on for about six years. Our earlier 
ponds not furnishing natural spawning-grounds, Ave constructed alongside each of 
the large ponds six smaller ponds for use as spawning-ponds, each about 16 by 24 
feet, 16 inches deep, Avith gravel bottom, and connected to the central pond by a 
4-foot channel. 
The fish entered these and spawned. In one case we had eight nests in a single 
pond of this sort. Where so many nests were made, usually but one or two of them 
