Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Tiger Bass?

I've been told that Tiger Bass are hybrids between the agressive Northern largemouth and the large Florida strain bass. I've also been told that Tiger Bass are "cultivated" based on their agressive tendencies. Simply put, the most agressive fish are caught and moved to another pond, where they are allowed to grow larger. Then they are caught again and the most agressive fighters are moved to another pond, where their fry are harvested and sold. This method sounds fishy to me, but wanted to dispel the rumor.

What would be the advantage of these fish? It would seem they would be the harvested quickly or slowly die out by hooking mortality.

What is the source of this information? People definetly cross breed florida and northern strain. But I have never heard of this type of selection.

This month's issue of BASS magazine has an extensive article on Gorilla Bass, which I believe are agressive northern strain LMB bred with other aggressives. This bass is then backcrossed with Florida strain to make Tiger bass. There is also a meanmouth bass which is a LMB X SMB hybrid.

Meanmouths were originaly breed by state hatcheries which believed the fish were more aggressive. There proved to be no benifit to stocking meanmouths and the practice has been discontinued everywhere.

I've never seen a prettier fish than a mean-mouth.

This makes you think. Just like mammal breeding programs, you should be able to breed larger and larger and more aggressive fish or what ever you look for. Look where the wolf is now -- beggin for scrapes at the kitchen table.

Tiger Bass is trade name for American Sportfish's F-1 hybrid. Standard cross with selective breeding. They are out of Alabama
Bruce do a search on Gorilla bass Cecil(I think) started a thread on that About a year ago

Yep, I got my Tiger Bass from ASF in Montgomery. I had also heard the other method of production involved taking the most aggressive morthern LMB and using them as breeding stock. Kind of like keeping only the meanest pitbulls out of the litter to continue the breeding cycle.

Sounds like what William Shockley termed "Dysgenics" which he refered to as "retro-gressive evolution caused by the excessive reporduction of the genetically disadvantaged!"

I'm having a hard time finding this magazine and their web sight is down so I can't get any info. Anybody know how I could get this article?

Do you guys know what's wrong with the "Gene Pool?"

There's no lifeguard!

Isn't there a huge largemouth bass variety that anglers go after in South Africa or is that all hype?

If true, has anyone attempted to mix that bass with the Florida bass?

And What about grouper and other sea bass? Can you imagine landing a 40 lb seabass cross-bread?(Probably a good thing I didn't go into genetics)

I have a strong opinion of "tiger bass." It's a marketing ploy. Here's the flaw...let's go ahead and make the assumption this cross is an excellent fish, grows fast, gets big. Then what? It cannot reproduce the same as itself. Think about it. If it's a cross between Florida and native strains of bass, this intergrade carries the genes of both parents. While hybrid vigor may certainly impose great results from this first cross, what happens generations beyond the first? If one of these fish crosses with another, what do you get? A mixed gene pool, that's what.
Stay with the "aggressive" concept of fish. Aggressive fish crossed with a different strain of aggressive fish...what do you get? Aggression is a genetic behavior...but the odds of reproducing aggressive fish are not high. Aggressive fish are hand selected, but generation after generation, fish hatcheries still hand select aggressive fish from their stocks. I called a well known producer of bass on feed. I asked what percentage of their baby bass are aggressive enough to take feed, early on. He said, even after fifteen years of hand selection of aggressive bass, he still has the same numbers of offspring taking feed. 75-85%. That's the same numbers as when they started this game, years ago. If an aggressive female bass lays 20,000 eggs, how many of those eggs will become aggressive little bassies? The same odds momma had. Toss in an "aggressive" daddy, and the odds are still similar, because his milt has the same odds. So, out of the 20,000 babies, will the most aggressive survive? Hmmmm....who knows? The little tots may just be eaten by their aggressive mommy, all things being equal in a "normal" pond or lake environment.
For the quest of growing huge largemouth bass, stick with the tried and true. Known genetics in a great habitat with plenty of food and selective harvest. Stir in good fortune, a smile from Mother Nature, flip a coin and you will grow double digit bass.
The tiger bass thing is a marketing ploy, with no long term basis in pond management fact.
Here's the bottom line. Even if this fish does what's advertised, long term management cannot support the genetic integrity of this first line of fish. The population starts off as good as it gets. So, three, five, ten years down the road, what do you do? Start over? Plan to continually alter genetics in what ways make the best sense to you.
Think it through, everyone. Don't get sucked into someone's marketing game. They have an agenda. It's not necessarily yours.