Been insanely busy at work and dealing with sick girls but finally got a chance to sample the 1"-2" sunfish I've been seeing around the shallows. I had suspected they were RES. After sampling, many are. However, I stocked 4 adult LES a couple years ago. During my collecting, it appears they had a limited spawn as well.

More interestingly, I collected some that appear to be RESxLES hybrids. They're still small but as they get larger I'll photograph and document if this ends up being the case. Could be an extremely interesting hybrid to work with...

T you gotta post pics soon. This would be of great interest to the forum. You're doing some great stuff out there and we all benefit from your experiments.

Hope to see the pics when you get the chance.

I too have RES and LES only (in the sunfish family), no bluegill or others to hybrid with. I wondered if I would see some hybrids this year. I didn't know if they hybridized or not. Post your pictures if you can, that will help me decide how to ID my fish as well.

There is a pond near me now with pumpkinseeds and RES. I am curious to see they will produce hybrids.

These sunfish are currently 1"-2". Gonna wait until they're a bit larger before I get some photos.

RES and LES can cross. Almost all of the sunfish can cross see this.


TEMPO OF HYBRID INVIABILITY IN CENTRARCHID FISHES by DANIEL I. BOLNICK AND THOMAS J. NEAR :


" The only crosses with total inviability in
both directions are M. salmoides 3 (Ambloplites rupestrus,
Pomoxis annularis, or Pomoxis nigromaculatus) at 28.94 million
years, while 10 other crosses of that age have some
viability in one or both reciprocal directions (see online Appendix).
Centrarchids also retain nonzero viability and heterosis
for much longer than most other taxa."

So in researching what a possible RESxLES sunfish would look like, I came across this thread in the Texas Fishing Forum. I think the posters have the ID wrong and I believe this hybrid to be a RESxLES.