Faillace, Pena, Brock, Stommel 1

Caitlin Faillace, Emily Pena, Sarah Brock, Nick Stommel

Marine Science
Bortz
18 May 2015
Food Preferences of Striped Bass
Purpose:
The goal of this study was to determine the preferred type of food and how long consumption
took of the Morone Saxatilis.
Background:
Marone saxitilus has certain food preferences when eating and hunting. Striped bass
tend to prefer small fish, worms, shrimp, squid, insects, and some types of snails (Wittenberg
2011). When deciding what type of food to experiment with, we reviewed what bass were
generally exposed to in the area we were going to be releasing them in. Around the Chesapeake
Bay watershed, the most abundant types of food for bass were the small fish like herring and
different types of worms (Chesapeake Bay program 2012). We decided to feed the bass feeder
fish, blood worms, and grass shrimp which are also common in many aquatic settings.
Materials and Methods:
30-gallon tank
Power cord
Filter
Aerator
Pebbles
3 fake plants
Log
2 bricks
Beaker- holds: 3 feeder fish, 3 grass shrimp, and 3 blood worms
3 stop watches- to measure how long each type of food was eaten
Dense culture food- serves as a control
Measured every day for 10 minutes after sample started
Data/Results:
*see attached graphs
Analysis/Conclusions:
Based on our data and observations during the feeding time of our striped bass, we
determined that the factor most impacting the preference of the bass was sight. They seemed to

Faillace, Pena, Brock, Stommel 2

eat what they could see first, and then they went for what was left later in the day. The feeder fish
are what they saw first, so the feeder fish were eaten usually in less than 10 seconds. The blood
worms were the second to go because the movement seemed to attract the striped bass attention.
The grass shrimp were usually not gone until after class, by the end of the day, because they
seemed to be the hardest for the bass to see. They preferred to feed on live food that is out in the
open, in the middle of the tank. They usually do not begin to scavenge at the bottom of the tank
until there are no other options for food. Based on our experiment alone, it is unclear whether
there was a preference for food that was unrelated to sight or proximity.
Recommendations:
There are many things that would need to be revised in further research to be able to
determine a more representable trend in the food preference of the striped bass. First, we had
time limited by the class length and the amount of time before the release of our fish. We only
observed the bass for 10 minutes once a day. While that gave us data points, increasing the
monitoring time and the number of times the bass were fed per day would have made for more
reliable data. In addition to the extremely limited time frame, the size of the tank and the amount
of items in it could have played a role in the results. Our bass seemed to go for the food that they
could find the easiest, which were the feeder fish. If there was something blocking their view,
like one of the artificial plants, they were less likely to eat the food. If this was to be retested, I
think that a larger tank with less objects in it would be better able to show the food preference of
the bass with the factor of sight less disruptive in the experiment. If this were to be continued,
there would need to be a larger sample size. We only had 3 bass to participate in our research, not
a good representation of a striped bass population. If an experiment meant to represent an entire
population was desired, instead of the preference of specific fish, a larger sample size would be
needed.
Literature Cited:
Chesapeake Bay Program (2012) Striped Bass. Retrieved from May 17, 2015
Wittenberg J. (2011) Morone Saxatilus. Retrieved from May 17, 2015