The white bass, silver bass, or sand bass (Morone chrysops) is a freshwater fish of the temperate bass family Moronidae. It is the state fish of Oklahoma.
The Moronidae are a family of perciform fishes, commonly called the temperate basses, consisting of at least six freshwater, brackish water, and marine species. The members of this family are most commonly found near the coastal regions of eastern North America, northern Africa, and Europe. The family includes the genera Morone and Dicentrarchus.
Oklahoma is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, Texas on the south, New Mexico on the west, and Colorado on the northwest. It is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the fifty United States. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people". It is also known informally by its nickname, "The Sooner State", in reference to the non-Native settlers who staked their claims on land before the official opening date of lands in the western Oklahoma Territory or before the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which dramatically increased European-American settlement in the eastern Indian Territory. Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged into the State of Oklahoma when it became the 46th state to enter the union on November 16, 1907. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.
White bass are distributed widely across the United States, particularly in the Midwest. They are very abundant in Pennsylvania and the area around Lake Erie. Some native ranges of the white bass are the Arkansas River, Lake Erie near Cleveland, Ohio, and Lake Poinsett in South Dakota; they are abundant in the Winnebago lakes system of Wisconsin; and they are also very abundant in Oklahoma.White bass have also been found in rivers that flow to the Mississippi. Native to many northern habitats, they have been introduced in many different waters around the United States, particularly in southern locations. They were also successfully introduced to Manitoba starting in the 1960s, where they have gained importance as a sport fish.
The species' main color is silver-white to pale green. Its back is dark, with white sides and belly, and with narrow dark stripes running lengthwise on its sides. It has large, rough scales and two dorsal fins. The more anterior dorsal fin is much harder and appears to have spines on them. Although these are not true spines, this type of fin is called a spinous ray. The more posterior of the two dorsal fins is much softer, and is thus called a soft-ray. Because the vertebrae do not extend into the tail, the white bass has what is called a homocercal tail. The body is deep and compressed laterally. 10 and 12 inches (25 and 30 cm), though they can reach 17 inches (43 cm) or more. Because the dorsal and ventral portions of the its tail angle inward toward a point to create a clear angle, the tail is said to be notched.Most grow to a length between
The record size for white bass caught on fishing tackle is 6 pounds 13 ounces (3.1 kg) shared by fish caught in 1989 in Orange Lake, Orange, Virginia, and in 2010 in Amite River, Louisiana.
Orange is a town in, and county seat of, Orange County, Virginia, United States. The population was 4,721 at the 2010 census, representing a 14.5% increase since the 2000 census. Orange is 28 miles (45 km) northeast of Charlottesville, 88 miles (142 km) southwest of Washington, D.C., and 4 miles (6 km) east of James Madison's plantation of Montpelier.
Louisiana is a state in the Deep South region of the South Central United States. It is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Louisiana is bordered by the state of Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. A large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River. Louisiana is the only U.S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are equivalent to counties. The state's capital is Baton Rouge, and its largest city is New Orleans.
White bass are carnivores. They have four main taxa in their diet: calanoid copepods, cyclopoid copepods, daphnia, and leptodora.They are visual feeders. When not frightened, they will bite readily at live bait such as worms and minnows. Only the largest fish will feed on other fish, and as the summer season progresses, there is an overall trend towards eating fewer fish. Fish that are able to accumulate lipids over the summer are better able to survive cold winters. When looking at midwestern white bass, particularly in South Dakota, diet overlap occurs between the bass and the walleye. As seasons progress through the summer and fall, the amount of diet overlap decreases as a result of both fish increasing in length.
Calanoida is an order of copepods, a kind of zooplankton. They include around 46 families with about 1800 species of both marine and freshwater copepods. Calanoid copepods are dominant in the plankton in many parts of the world's oceans, making up 55%–95% of plankton samples. They are therefore important in many food webs, taking in energy from phytoplankton and algae and 'repackaging' it for consumption by higher trophic level predators. Many commercial fish are dependent on calanoid copepods for diet in either their larval or adult forms. Baleen whales such as bowhead whales, sei whales, right whales and fin whales eat calanoid copepods.
The Cyclopoida are an order of small crustaceans from the subclass Copepoda. Like many other copepods, members of Cyclopoida are small, planktonic animals living both in the sea and in freshwater habitats. They are capable of rapid movement. Their larval development is metamorphic, and the embryos are carried in paired or single sacs attached to first abdominal somite.
Daphnia, a genus of small planktonic crustaceans, are 0.2–5 millimetres (0.01–0.20 in) in length. Daphnia are members of the order Cladocera, and are one of the several small aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas because their saltatory (Wiktionary) swimming style resembles the movements of fleas. Daphnia live in various aquatic environments ranging from acidic swamps to freshwater lakes and ponds.
White bass inhabit large reservoirs and rivers. When mating in the spring, they are more often found in shallow rivers, creeks, and streams.White bass are found in high densities in the upstream segment of rivers. This portion of the river becomes the most degraded, as a number of different kinds of fish live in this segment, as well.
The spawning season for the white bass is mid-March to late May. The optimal water temperatures are 12 to 20 °C (54 to 68 °F). They are known to find their home spawning ground even if it is moved to a different part of the same lake. They often spawn in moving water in a tributary stream, but they will spawn in windswept lake shores. They spawn during daylight. Females release 242,000 to 933,000 eggs which stick to the surface of objects. Eggs are laid in clear, relatively shallow water on plants, submerged logs, gravel, or rocks. The parents move to deeper water and do not care for the young fish. The young fish live in shallow water for a while until they move to deeper water.
When trying to find a female with whom to mate, males will bump against a female's abdominal area. The female will then rise closer to the surface and begin spinning and releasing eggs. Several males that have stayed in the area will be able to fertilize the eggs the female releases.
The white perch is not a true perch but is, rather, a fish of the temperate bass family, Moronidae, notable as a food and game fish in eastern North America. In some locales it is referred to incorrectly as "silver bass".
Squalius cephalus is a European species of freshwater fish in the carp family Cyprinidae. It frequents both slow and moderate rivers, as well as canals and still waters of various kinds. This species is referred to as the common chub, European chub, or simply chub.
The muskellunge(Esox masquinongy), also known as muskelunge, muscallonge, milliganong, or maskinonge, is a species of large, relatively uncommon freshwater fish native to North America. The muskellunge is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae. The common name comes from the Ojibwa word maashkinoozhe, meaning "ugly pike", by way of French masque allongé, "elongated face." The French common name is masquinongé or maskinongé.
The quillback is a type of freshwater fish of the sucker family. It is deeper-bodied than most suckers, leading to a carplike appearance. It can be distinguished from carp by the lack of barbels around the mouth.
The bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, brim, sunny, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes. It is native to North America and lives in streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds. It is commonly found east of the Rockies. It usually hides around, and inside, old tree stumps and other underwater structures. It can live in either deep or very shallow water, and will often move back and forth, depending on the time of day or season. Bluegills also like to find shelter among water plants and in the shade of trees along banks.
The black crappie is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black spots.
The yellow perch, commonly referred to as perch, is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill from New York. It is closely related, and morphologically similar to the European perch ; and is sometimes considered a subspecies of its European counterpart. Other common names for yellow perch include American perch, coontail, lake perch, raccoon perch, ring-tail perch, ringed perch, and striped perch. Another nickname for the perch is the Dodd fish.
The green sunfish is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. A panfish popular with anglers, the green sunfish is also kept as an aquarium fish by hobbyists. They are usually caught by accident, while fishing for other game fish. Green sunfish can be caught with live bait such as nightcrawlers, waxworms, mealworms and, blood worms. Grocery store baits such as pieces of hot dog or corn kernels can even catch fish. Small lures have been known to occasionally catch green sunfish. They can be caught with fly fishing tackle.
The sauger is a freshwater perciform fish of the family Percidae which resembles its close relative the walleye. They are members of the largest vertebrate order, Perciformes. They are the most migratory percid species in North America. Saugers obtain two dorsal fins, the first is spiny and the posterior dorsal fin is a soft-rayed fin. Their paired fins are in the thoracic position and their caudal fin is truncated which means squared off at the corners, a characteristic of the family Percidae. Another physical characteristic of Saugers are their ctenoid scales which is common in advanced fishes. Saugers have a fusiform body structure, and as a result saugers are well adapted predatory fishes and are capable of swimming into fast currents with minimal drag on their bodies. They may be distinguished from walleyes by the distinctly spotted dorsal fin, by the lack of a white splotch on the caudal fin, by the rough skin over their gill, and by their generally more brassy color, or darker color in some regions. The average sauger in an angler's creel is 300 to 400 g in weight.
The freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens, is a fish endemic to North and Central America. It is the only species in the genus Aplodinotus, and is a member of the family Sciaenidae. It is the only North American member of the group that inhabits freshwater for its entire life. Its generic name, Aplodinotus, comes from Greek meaning "single back", and the specific epithet, grunniens, comes from a Latin word meaning "grunting". It is given to it because of the grunting noise that mature males make. This noise comes from a special set of muscles within the body cavity that vibrate against the swim bladder. The purpose of the grunting is unknown, but due to it being present in only mature males, it is assumed to be linked to spawning.
The bigmouth buffalo also known as the gourd head, redmouth buffalo, buffalo fish, bernard buffalo, roundhead, or brown buffalo, is a large species of the Catostomidae or "sucker" carp family.
Morone mississippiensis, commonly known as the yellow bass, is a member of the family Moronidae. This species is a deep bodied fish that possesses five to seven dark stripes laterally along the sides, the lowest few of these are often broken or disrupted anterior to the origin of the anal fin. This species is somewhat similar to two other species in the family Moronidae, the white bass and the striped bass. The yellow bass is distinguishable from both of these species by having the offset lateral stripes above the anal fin and from not possessing tooth patches on the tongue. The yellow bass differs further from the white bass by having nine to ten anal rays in comparison to eleven or thirteen. The back of the fish is usually a dark olive green, and the abdomen and sides are often a silvery yellow.
The silver redhorse is a species of freshwater fish endemic to Canada and the United States. Sometimes called redhorse or sucker for short, the it is in the family Catostomidae with other suckers. The species is distributed from Quebec to Alberta and is also in the Mississippi River, St. Lawrence River, Ohio River, and the Great Lakes basins.
A hybrid striped bass, also known as a wiper or whiterock bass, is a hybrid between the striped bass and the white bass. It can be distinguished from the striped bass by broken rather than solid horizontal stripes on the body. Hybrid striped bass are considered better suited for culture in ponds than either parent species because they are more resilient to extremes of temperature and to low dissolved oxygen.
The Japanese seabass, also suzuki (鱸), is a species of Asian seabass native to the western Pacific Ocean, where it occurs from Japan to the South China Sea. They inhabit fresh, brackish, and marine waters of inshore rocky reefs and in estuaries at depths of at least 5 m (16 ft). This species is catadromous, with the young ascending rivers and then returning to the sea to breed. Its tail is slightly forked and the mouth is large with the lower jaw projecting beyond the upper. Young fish have small black spots on the back and dorsal fin. These spots tend to disappear as fish grows larger. This species can reach a length of 102 cm (40 in), though most do not exceed 16.1 cm (6.3 in). The greatest weight recorded for this species is 8.7 kg (19 lb). This species is important commercially, popular as a game fish, and farmed.
The pugnose shiner is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Notropis. It is in the family Cyprinidae which consists of freshwater carps and minnows. Cyprinidae is the largest fish family which consists of about 369 genera and 3,018 species. Its distribution has been decreasing due to the removal of aquatic plants in order to create swimming beaches and boating access in freshwater lakes and is now mostly found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
The longnose shiner is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Notropis.
The smallmouth buffalo is a Cypriniformes fish species found in the major tributaries and surrounding waters of the Mississippi River in the United States, as well as some other water systems where it has been introduced. It is a stocky fish like its relatives the bigmouth buffalo and the black buffalo, although the smallmouth buffalo's mouth is located ventrally like other Catostomidae species, while the bigmouth buffalo's mouth is terminal and opens forward, and the smallmouth buffalo's eyes are significantly larger than those of the black buffalo. These three species are superficially similar to the common carp, but all lack the characteristic barbels.
Percina phoxocephala, the slenderhead darter, is a North American species of freshwater fish in the family Percidae. It is found in the central Ohio and Mississippi River basins, to northeastern South Dakota and the Lake Winnebago system in Wisconsin, and as far south as the Red River in eastern Oklahoma and northeast Texas, typically in small to medium size rivers. It is a colorful species, with an average length of 6 to 9 centimeters. Males take on a deeper hue during the breeding season. It feeds on insect larvae and other small invertebrates, and spawns between April and June. It is a common fish with a very wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified its conservation status as being of "least concern".
The Gulf pipefish is a member of the family Sygnathidae.