Very interesting. Thanks.
Really high mortality from winter kill. Maybe related to how small the ponds were? Couldn't find deep enough/warm enough water? Hope I do not have that high of mortality rate this winter.
In the studies that ewest has linked to several times (last post on previous page of this thread) of what various sunfish eat it is interesting to note how few actual fish had been eaten as part of the diet. The vast majority of the sunfish diet from what was found in the gut was anything other than fish.
This begs a couple more questions.
If the sunfish are not eating other sunfish fry, what is? (LMB obviously, but I would think that BG, etc. would be eating quite a few of the small fish fry, but not according to that study).
And the second question, is it possible for the sunfish to actually be eating a lot of tiny fish fry (and eggs) that were too small or digested too quickly for the researchers to count? I've never cut open a fish yet to see what it has eaten, so these questions may have common knowledge answers that I'm unaware of.
Last edited by snrub; 11/17/14 11:12 PM.
