I was getting some 5inch gsf for my 30 gallon on the patio and I brought this home. Less colorful than the other gsf's. Is this a female?

My guess is it has some bluegill in it, which is whay it is not as colorful as a straight greenie. See the dark spot on the soft dorsal fin? That's one of the indicators of a bluegill.

Cecil nailed it. Dark spot and mouth size indicate some significant bluegill lineage.

BG X GS maybe?

It's so brown, I would have guessed Warmouth.

Can you do a spine count on the anal and dorsal fins, Keith?

Guys I don't know. It looks to have some BG and GSF but sure looks like some other stuff mixed in. That pattern is different. GSF also have that dorsal spot. How big is the fish. Here is a GSF.

Oops! But I still concur with Bruce. Too small of a mouth to be just a greenie or even have some warmouth in it. Warmouth have big mouths like greenies too don't they?

Aren't the gill rakers different in bluegills than the other two species also? Seems like if it has gillrakers similar to a bluegill it might also show it is part bluegill.

It does have a peculiar coloring for a BG GSF mix. It is definitely a mix. Looks more like warmouth. Do they interbreed easily like GSF?

I don't think it is a BGxGSF. I think there is some other sunfish mix in this fish. The prominent white side body markings with the slight amount of emerald cheek streaks should tell us something, but I do not know the TX sunfishes well enough acurately predict the lineage.

I haven't caught a pumkinseed at the pond I got this one but this is a pic from some of my stocker fish for my pond and the markings are similar and colors so I'm going to say the first sunfish is a greenXpumkinseed. Look at this pic and then look at the original. What do you think?

That was my 1st inclination was pumpkinseed in there, but far more experienced folks than me indicated BG. May be one of Theo's 263 million chromosome possibilities with 3 sunfish species.

I checked a couple sources and pumpkinseed's are not native to Texas. Anyone know differently ? They are more of a north and east coast fish.

Can GSF have any red markings on their ear tab, or is that trait limited more to Pumpkinseeds and RES?

Kieth's fish in the first photo do posess similar body markings of a pumpkinseed. That is close to what I was looking for. Kieth's fish also has a few streaks on cheeks similar to ewests photo. Some GSF can have a weak rose to slight orange color on the back side of the gill flap, but never red as in ewest's pumpkinseed photo.

Kieth how big is the fish and where did it come from (hatchery , lake , stream) and location of source. Why do you think you have PS ?


Guys look at these pics then tell us what you think.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ouachita/local-resources/images/natural-resc/fish/photoalbum/long_ear.jpg

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ouachita/local-resources/images/natural-resc/fish/photoalbum/bluegill.jpg

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/ouachita/local-r...ear_sunfish.jpg


http://search.msn.com/images/results.asp...Red_Ear_png.jpg

I got the fish for my pond from a local pond at a junior college. Texas parks and wildlife has only stocked bg according to their site but I've been catching all types of sunfish there since I was a kid. Not sure who put them there. Today I had my first group of fisherman. He had assorted types but no straight greens. Here are some pics of fish from my pond today:








[IMG]

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w216/croaker1974/today3.jpg[/IMG]

Ok, so is a longear and a pumkinseed the same thing? I deffinately stocked some pure pumkinseed and some that are very long eared but a little more drap, then some that are very bright red brested but those pointed me back to the pumkinseed. I've wanted to get more of them because when I have caught them they are very aggresive and they eat snails and they are very pretty. I know they don't get to be the biggest but they get to be 8 inches pretty often from what I've seen. When I was stocking my pond I was using a trap and a typical catch was 8bg, 2gsf and one ps and at the end i was throwing back the others and trying to get a couple of more ps. I'll try to get another pic of a Texas PS. They are at Richland College in Richardson Texas.

Keith,

Picture 1 and 2 appear to be BG.

Not sure what you have there in pic #3, but you can easily recognize a longear. They have the cahracteristic long "ear", and the males have the bluish color with gaudy red breast:

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/families/images/jpegs/longearsun.jpg

Keith tell us what types of sunfish are in the pond and for how long. From this thread it sounds like BG , LES , RBS , GSF , PS. Is that right. What about RES ? All of these can cross. It sounds like a virtual sunfish (lepomis) cornucopia. Most look to have a lot of BG genes except the very first ones which may have some but not as much as the others. There are definitely other lepomis genes in there in addition to BG.

I would like to throw out the idea that it might be a redspotted sunfish x bluegill cross. I have collected redspotted sunfish on a few occasions and when I saw the picture they immediately came to mind. They are also native to your area. Here are links to a couple of pictures:

http://www.samford.edu/schools/artsci/biology/vertzoo2.htm

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=391

http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/PicturesSummary.cfm?ID=60775&what=species

Note the orange on the ear tab. The third picture is a male in breeding color, which is why the spots are so bright. Most redspotted sunfish that I have seen are colored similarly to the picture that you have (minus the dark spot on the dorsal fin and a couple other characteristics that make me think your fish is crossed with a bluegill).

Guys again I want to encourage you to learn to use Wisc Fish.

http://www.wiscfish.org/fishid/frames.aspx

They do not have all the southern fish (RES) but there are some lepomis crosses. The links will not post but go to the above address - pick out one of the lepomis from the chart - when you get to that page in the bottom right will be a pic of crosses - click on the pic and see the other pics from the side menu.

LE X GSF 3 way


PS x WM


PS X GSF


PS X BG

The ones I don't know if I have or not are RES:)I put some in with red ears but the looked like the pumkinseed cross but yes, I put in a bunch of different types. The pond used to dry out every other year so we had it dug bigger and deeper to 12 ft and it's probably 1/4 acre from my bad math, maybe a little smaller. It just filled over the winter and I fertilized and had a algae bloom. I caught all the fish in traps and with hook and bread. I probably put 50-100 yoy's of all different types from the minnow trap then I used a bigger perch trap and took a total of atleast 150-200 adults from 3 inches and greater. There a few big gsf, several big bgs, and some that were bright red like cherry perch, then the little fat bodied slippery colorful pumkinseeds. They are like handling a wet pumkinseed and they are crazy. Some had real long ears. I would say the percentages are somewhere around 80% bg or cnbg not sure then the other 20% is made up of gsf, ps, londear, red ones with red eyes??? and various hybrids that I'm not sure of. I also stocked like 150 gambusias but yesterday I couldn't see any. I wonder if they all got eaten. Hope not. I will need to add bass later for population controll but I want big sunfish of all different types for food and fun.

2 new ps for my pond

Keith, when you describe one with the VERY long eartab and bright red, it is actually a redbrest. They have a longer eartab than a longear, and are absolutely stunning in color. Post a pic if you catch one.

Here\'s some purdy sunfish pictures.

I think I have variations of longear and pumkinseed but not sure about the redbreast, definately greens and BGs and all kinds of hybrids. those redbreast are nice!!! I liked hearing my niece say "oooh, look at that one, it's silver, oh this one is red, look at the colors!!!" ect... As long as they get to keeper size then I'll take the added variations. It's also fun for me to look and try to figure out what it is. You just never know!!!

Can you guys tell me if green sunfish are good to have in a 1 acre pond in Indiana? I put them there before I knew what they were. I probably have 100 in there. I'd rather have bass and bluegill.

thx.

Hi Mark, welcome to the forum.

Your timing is good. Maybe you can make lemonaide.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000637;p=1

It'll all be ok Mark. Those greens will bite when nothing else does and you are preserving a slice of the native wildlife. They are exciting little fish.