I'll tell you what. The next time someone tells you you've got to have a saltwater aquarium to have pretty fish, you tell them to go jump in the lake. Did you see those 2 fish I posted over in my thread. Those have beautiful colors. The iridescent blue/green striping around the nose, the yellow belly and the yellow outlines on fins and tail. Those fish rival anything I've seen in an aquarium. I've got a good mind to go get an aquarium and keep some to show everyone.

I totally agree. I have always thought that the GSF were fantastic looking specimens.

A longer sunfish, especially a male in breeding colors, will give an exotic fish a run for its money.

2 questions

How long do GSF live? Is it the same as BG?

How do you tell a male from female?

From FISHBASE

max. reported age: 9 years


From EFish

Physical Description:
· Deep, compressed body
· Black opercular spot with a pale margin
· Very large, terminal mouth
· Large eye
· Tail fin lobes rounded
· Pectoral fin rounded
· Dark body with iridescent blue stripes
· Posterior base of dorsal fin with black spot

Similar species:
· Warmouth (Lepomis gulosus)
· Redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus)

Mean body size:
· Adults are 70-180 mm total length

Habitat:
· Slow pools, moderate-gradient streams and rivers



Food Habits:
· Insects and fish

Reproductive Habits:
· Mature at age 1 or 3
· Spawning occurs late May through July
· Males build nests around vegetation
· Fecundity is 2,000-10,000 eggs per female per year
· Hybridizes with many other sunfish species

I got a real soft spot for the beautiful, aggressive, easy to grow, GSF

Thanks eWest, now I need to figure out how to tell the males from females

All go see this link if you want info on GSF and other lepomis hybrids. John Lyons with WiscFish does an outstanding job. Great pics and written charts on sunfish id.


http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/home/Default.aspx?tabid=605&FishID=64

Male and female GSF look similar.

Farmall,


70 to 180 mm is about 2.8 to 7 inches....


Now you know why I said "Wow" when you posted pics of your 9 inch GSF! They are definitely nice ones.

Yeah Buddy!!!!

Small GSF will do well in an aquarium. When our kids were small we would go collect a few out of a stream along with other natural critters (snails, crayfish, etc) and keep them over the summer in an aquarium. GSF are pretty tolerant of marginal water conditions.