The larvae are nourished by a large yolk mass. Eggs produced by female stripers weighing 10 pounds or more contain greater amounts of yolk and oil reserve and have a greater probability of hatching. The larvae's survival depends primarily upon events during the first three weeks of life. Typically striped bass larvae begin feeding about five days after hatching, depending on water temperature. As the larvae grow, they can be found at progressively deeper levels of the water column.
Young stripers tend to move downstream to areas of higher salinity.
Some less than two years old migrate along the Atlantic Coast, but many do not migrate until age three, and most remain in the river system in which they were spawned. Estuaries are critically important to the life cycle of striped bass, which use them as spawning grounds and nurseries. Mature stripers are found in and around a variety of inshore habitats as well, including areas off sandy beaches and along rocky shorelines, in shallow water or deep trenches, and in rivers and the open Bay. Any significant alterations of these habitats has the potential to disrupt the life cycle of the striped bass. Adults are piscivorous, or fish-eaters.