White bass
Morone chrysops
Also known asBarfish · Sand bass · Silver bass
Water parameters
Minimum tank: 800 L per individual at harvest size.
Feed and growth
- Feed protein
- 40% target
- Daily feed (warm)
- 2.00% of body weight
- Daily feed (cool)
- 0.80% of body weight
- Max density
- 30 g per litre
A 1200 g adult eats about 24.0 g of feed per day at optimum. 10 fish at adult size: ~240 g daily.
Origin and habitat
Native to central North America, through the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes, Hudson Bay (Red River) and Mississippi basins, from Quebec and South Dakota south to Louisiana and on to the Rio Grande in Texas and New Mexico. A temperate bass of the family Moronidae, it grows to about 46 cm and 3 kg, with most adults 30–40 cm. White bass are open-water schooling predators: juveniles eat small crustaceans and midge larvae, adults chase shad, silversides and young sunfish. The flesh is white but softer and stronger-flavoured than striped bass, with a dark lateral muscle that is usually trimmed, so it carries less market value on its own. Its main importance is as a parent of the farmed hybrid: a cross of a female white bass with a male striped bass gives the sunshine bass, while the reciprocal cross, female striped by male white, is the palmetto bass.
Climate and outdoor ponds
- Climate
- temperate (handles seasonal swings)
- USDA zones
- 4–10 (winter low around -34°C or warmer)
- Heating needed
- no
- Cooling needed
- no
Care notes
On its own white bass has little aquaponics use; its value is as the white-bass parent of the commercially important hybrid striped bass. It is a warm-water fish, best around 22–28°C within a tolerance of about 5–30°C, and it spawns when water reaches roughly 14°C. White bass take pellets more readily than pure striped bass and are easier to rear, and it is their hardiness and broader temperature and oxygen tolerance that the hybrid inherits. Growth runs around 300–600 g in 12 to 18 months on feed of 38 to 42 percent protein, with feed conversion near 1.8 to 2.5. For food production the hybrid beats white bass on every measure: larger size, better flesh, better conversion and higher price, so white bass culture mostly happens at hatcheries keeping broodstock for the cross, with wild stock still the main broodstock source. Fingerlings come from state hatcheries, and the fish is legal to keep in most states without special permits. It is not a sensible standalone aquaponics choice.