Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bluegill Pre-Spawn Behavior

This is my first year feeding and really paying attention to what's going on in a pond. Earlier this week I noticed several large BG on nests which they were vigilantly protecting. Well today I noticed that a small cluster of three nests now has something like 70-80 BG ranging from large to very small camping out and jockeying for position. There were a couple BG in one nests and I could see a few smaller ones turning sideways and fanning the bottom of the nest.

Is this normal to have several BG clustering around a couple nests? The only logical explanations I could come up with were that once one pair of BG was done another would take over the nest(which is contrary to how I thought it worked). My second theory is that for some reason the BG are getting pushed out of other possible spawning habitat...whether by predators or some other type of limiting factors.

Anyway I just wanted to hear what the seasoned veterans thought about this. Perhaps it is normal, but it just seems off to me.

BG are colony nesters. The largest males tend to have choice over the best spawning/nest building sites while smaller less dominant males build nests nearby in less desirable locations.

The sideways turning and fanning is just nest building/maintaining/spawning/egg and fry care behavior.

The several BG clustering around a couple nests maybe males who built the nests and ripe females coming in to spawn in those nests. There are also what are known as satellite males. These males are small, take on the coloration of a female and will try to sneak in to a nest and deposit some sperm over eggs that may not get fertilized by the dominant male BG who built the nest.

The world of fish is quite dynamic and interesting as you can see...

While BG are colony nesters a few are solitary nesters. BG don't pair up but the male stays on the nest and the females go from nest to nest dropping part of their eggs.

Here is a solitary nesting male CNBG.

Most of the BG that are clustering around an active BG nest are waiting for an opportunity to dart in and eat eggs. On-lookers will dart in and eat eggs during egg laying or after eggs are laid. I have watched this happen several times. Even adjacent, nest guarding males will dart in during the egg laying to eat eggs before they land in the bottom of the nest. The male of the mating pair is kept quite busy during fertilizing while chasing out intruders. I spent most of Sunday afternoon watching this same behavior occur with RES.

Several studies have noted that smaller BG ( 2-4 in.) were the largest predator on spawning BG eggs and fry/yoy. Bill our RES were up to the same thing.

Crap...no wonder they weren't very interested in the pellets floating over their heads, they wanted caviar!

So is there anything we can do to keep the small ones of the nests? I have noticed that my LMB are starting to cruise over the nest sites. Hopefully they can do the job for me.

Not to worry. There will be PLENTY of bluegill to survive.

Black Bass,

You might find this 2005 Pond Boss article by our good friend, Dr. Dave Willis, to be of interest:

The Secret Life of Bluegill

The first sentence reads:

Ken

Great information, thanks for sharing. I am watching my first season of BG or RES spawning and the article answered lots of my questions.