A hybrid striped bass (''Morone chrysops × M. saxatilis''), also commonly referred to by the

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

wiper, is a

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

between

white bass The white bass, silver bass, or sand bass (''Morone chrysops'') is a freshwater fish of the temperate bass family Moronidae. commonly around 12–15 inches long. The species' main color is silver-white to pale green. Its back is dark, with whit ...

(''Morone chrysops'') and

striped bass The striped bass (''Morone saxatilis''), also called the Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock, or rockfish, is an anadromous perciform fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has ...

(''M. saxatilis''). In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, wiper are raised in hatcheries and stocked extensively, particularly in lower

midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

and southeastern reservoirs.Fuller, P., 2025, Morone chrysops × saxatilis: U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL, https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=784, Revision Date: 5/31/2019, Peer Review Date: 9/16/2011, Access Date: 4/29/2025

Origins

The first reported culture of wiper was in the 1960s with

gametes A gamete ( ) is a haploid cell that fuses with another haploid cell during fertilization in organisms that reproduce sexually. Gametes are an organism's reproductive cells, also referred to as sex cells. The name gamete was introduced by the Ge ...

from a female striped bass fertilized with a male white bass.Bishop, R. David. "Evaluation of the striped bass (Roccus saxatilis) and white bass (R. chrysops) hybrids after two years." (1967): 245-254. The reciprocal cross with gametes from a female white bass fertilized with a male striped bass was first produced in the 1970s.Ware, F.J. 1975. Progress with Morone Hybrids in Fresh Water. Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of SE Assoc. of Game and Fish Commissioners. Nov. 17-20, 1974. 48-54. The male white bass to female striped bass cross is sometimes referred to as a “whiterock bass”, while the female white bass to male striped bass cross is referred to as a “sunshine bass”. The native ranges of striped bass and white bass have little natural overlap,Fuller, P., 2025, Morone chrysops (Rafinesque, 1820): U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL, https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=779, Revision Date: 6/27/2019, Peer Review Date: 5/29/2013, Access Date: 4/29/2025Pam Fuller, and Matt Neilson, 2025, Morone saxatilis (Walbaum, 1792): U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL, https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=787, Revision Date: 8/14/2019, Peer Review Date: 6/11/2014, Access Date: 4/29/2025 but natural hybridization can occur.

Description

Wiper can generally be distinguished from striped bass by broken rather than solid horizontal stripes on the body, with solid stripes more frequent above the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

and fewer interruptions posteriorly. Despite being widely used as an identifying characteristic, broken stripes are not most reliable trait for identification.Williams, H.M. 1976. Characteristics for Distinguishing White Bass, Striped Bass, and Their Hybrid (Striped Bass x White Bass). Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference SE Assoc. of Game and Fish Commissioners. October 12-15, 1975. 168-172. A more reliable external characteristic to identify this hybrid is the number of tooth patches present on the tongue. Both white bass and wiper are deep-bodied but wiper reach a larger maximum size than white bass. Other distinguishing characteristics include a serrated operculum, a forked

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

ctenoid A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

scales, and silvery coloration.

Diet

Wiper are predominantly

piscivorous A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted rept ...

, preferring clupeids such as gizzard shad and threadfin shad.Etnier, D.A. and W.C. Starnes. 1993. The Fishes of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN. ISBN 0-87049-711-1.

Production

Wiper are considered better suited for culture in

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

s than both parent species due to their greater tolerance of higher water temperature and lower dissolved oxygen, although they gravitate toward areas of moving water once released. The most commonly produced and stocked cross is the female striped bass and male white bass, likely due to the greater number of eggs produced per female. The female striped bass is injected with human gonadotropin which stimulates her to lay.Hodson, R.G., and M. Hayes. 1989. Hybrid striped bass: hatchery phase. Southern Regional Aquaculture Center No. 301. Once the eggs are fertilized, the brood fish are removed and the eggs remain adrift in artificial current for about 48 hours to hatch.

Management

Wiper are highly regarded as hard-fighting sportfish. They are known for aggressive feeding habits (such as “breaking” the surface of water to capture trapped shad) and schooling. Popular lures for catching wiper include casting spoons, buck-tail jigs, soft-body plastic fish replicas, and inline spinners. The world record wiper is a fish caught in

Greers Ferry Lake Greers Ferry Lake is the reservoir formed by Greers Ferry Dam, a United States Army Corps of Engineers dam in Northern Arkansas. It is located about north of Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock. Geography The reservoir consists of two lakes co ...

, Arkansas in 1997. Additionally, wiper are considered good table fare; many restaurants sell "striped bass" on their menus, but these are farm-raised hybrid striped bass. In some waterbodies, wiper occur naturallyAvise, J.C. and M.J. Van den Avyle. 1984. Genetic analysis of reproduction of hybrid white bass x striped bass in the Savannah River. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 113(5):563-570. Backcrossing could put native populations of white bass or striped bass at risk due to

genetic pollution Genetic pollution is a term for uncontrolled gene flow into wild populations. It is defined as "the dispersal of contaminated altered genes from genetically engineered organisms to natural organisms, esp. by cross-pollination", but has come to be ...

Notes

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2355543 Morone Fish hybrids