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The Effects of Various Fertilizers on Plant Growths and their Probable Influence on the Production of Smallmouth Black Bass in Hard‐Water Ponds
Author(s) -
Surber Eugene W.
Publication year - 1945
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1943)73[377:teovfo]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - biology , cladophora , cottonseed meal , fertilizer , algae , bass (fish) , hay , aquatic plant , agronomy , chara , fishery , botany , zoology , macrophyte , ecology , raw material , soybean meal
The bass ponds supplied with hard water at the U. S. Fishery Experimental Station, Leetown, West Virginia, are naturally unproductive of fish, due to impenetrable growths of Chara which invade them soon after they are filled and persist throughout the period of their operation. The addition of cottonseed or soybean meals alone to these ponds failed to increase production over that of unfertilized ponds. When timothy hay and cottonseed meal were combined with superphosphate, increased fish production resulted. The results with hay 10 parts: superphosphate (20 per cent) 1 part were outstanding. Three ponds fertilized with this combination averaged 190 pounds of bass per acre. High production of fish is apparently correlated with plant decay. Water blooms have not been produced consistently by any combination of inorganic fertilizers yet tried. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that their production is associated with certain nutrient elements released by plant decay. A 12–5–5 inorganic fertilizer combination contains the proper proportions of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash to stimulate the early spring growth of Spirogyra and the summer growth of Cladophora glomerata, Oedogonium, Hydrodictyon, and Zygnema. Cladophora was the characteristic summer filamentous algal form when this fertilizer was used. These algae smother out Chara and indirectly increase fish production. Ponds fertilized with a 13–5–5 inorganic combination gave better fry survival and production of smallmouth black bass when filled in November 1942 and wintered wet than did ponds filled in early April 1943.