No problems here:)
Indian PaintBrush, I'll break down the table that Ewest pasted. L. macrochirus is the bluegill and L. microlophus is the redear. The real interesting tidbit from this table (Tabel 2- the top table) involves the food items. The taxonomy might confuse you, but everything listed is either an invertebrate or a plant. EXCEPT for the heading Osteichthyes- these are fish. Notice the how many fish were found in the redear's gut? None.
The bottom table (Table 1) is actually more descriptive because the food items are quantified, but redear are not listed in this table. You get the picture that most Lepomids are opportunists, but to survive successfully (long-term) with one another, they must have their own feeding niche whethers its species of food items consumed or sizes of food. If the diets are exactly the same, then the more aggressive fish will dominate. The fact is that diets will almost overlap between species of fish, but it's ultimately the subtle differences that tell the story.
Gut content analysis is a quick method to assess what the fish are capable (willing) to eat. Knowing what they prefer to eat is really good info, but finding this involves a very detailed study involving quantifying the relative abundances of the food items and then looking at the gut contents. Then we get more twists and turns when we start looking at what the fish eat based on the size of the fish, and then you start looking at diet overlap between species of fish, etc.
The bottom line is to have a pond that has a diverse array of food items. Ultimately, it all boils down to habitat and water quality. If you can create these two situations, then the hardest part is done. A great pond should be teeming with life in many different forms.
Ewest, given your interest with bluegill, please let me recommend the following two papers:
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
Volume 135, Issue 5 (September 2006) pp. 1254–1265
and
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
Volume 134, Issue 1 (January 2005) pp. 149–159
I think you'll find them informative and interesting. I can get you copies if you don't have access to them. Just let me know with a PM. By the way, I did purchase the bluegill biology book you recommended. I really like it. Thanks for the recommendation.
