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<br />I bass when offered three size ranges of squawfish (50-65 mm, <br /> 75-90 mm, and 100-120 mm long). <br /> Pond bass switched their diet from customary food <br /> items to squawfish after squawfish were stocked. Captive <br /> bass preferred squawfish over green sunfish and red shiners <br />¦ b <br />t <br /> u <br />selected fathead minnows and squawfish equally. Under <br /> pond conditions, however, fathead minnows failed to buffer <br /> predation on squawfish, indicating that stocked squawfish <br /> were more vulnerable. Bass ate significantly higher <br /> numbers of the smallest squawfish available under labora- <br /> t <br />di <br />i <br /> ory con <br />t <br />ons and during the first three nights after <br /> pond stocking. Squawfish survival varied greatly among <br /> ponds and stocking efforts. Survival was 0-60% 30 wk after <br /> stocking in fall 1983, 0-49% 10 wk after the summer 1984 <br /> stocking, and 0.0-0.3% 28 wk after the fall 1984 stocking. <br /> <br /> Stomach contents of bass indicated that intense predation <br />was largely responsible for the complete loss of squawfish <br />from one pond which had a high bass density. However, <br />mortality was also high in a pond with few predators; <br />starvation, winter stress, or parasitism might explain the <br />low survival there. The rate of growth of squawfish in one <br />pond where water was warm and forage plentiful, was more <br />than twice that previously documented for squawfish from <br />river or hatchery environments. Thus, riverside ponds <br />appear to have potential as low-maintenance grow-out ponds <br />for hatchery-produced squawfish if predators are absent and <br />self-sustaining forage fish are present. <br />xiv