I apologize for the poor quality of this picture. I took another but it was worse. Seems like I have a hard time keeping from shaking any more when trying to hold something like a camera or in this case a phone still.
This obviously is a GSF or at least a lot of GSF influence. But what I would really like to know is if it has any other genetics in it. The mouth seems a little small to me to be a pure GSF.
Here is the deal. This came out of my main 3 acre pond. I have been putting fingerling fish from my sediment pond over into this pond for several months now off and on. A small portion of the fingerlings have had a definite GSF slant if not pure GSF. Not high numbers of these fingerlings but a few. I have an explosive number of BG in the main 3 acre pond and have yet to see any LMB recruitment so I'm not too concerned that a few GSF are going to cause any significant harm to the fishery and I would actually like to introduce some hybrids in the mix. So a handful of GSF in the main pond does not concern me.
Last fall I stocked the sediment pond with 200 RES and 100 CNBG from Dunn's Fish Farm. Most of the fish were only 1" to 1.5" long. Hard to get an absolute identification at that stage, at least for me. But in the bags, the fish that were supposed to be RES definitely had a different "look" to them than the ones that were supposed to be the CNBG. Although I did not handle each individual fish, I did gaze at the bags for an extended period trying to pick out any fish in the respective bag that looked "different" or out of place. I saw none. The fish looked very uniform with nothing to make me suspect there were any off species. Does not mean there were not, just not that I could tell.
I had previously put FHM also in this sediment pond from my forage pond. I hand sorted a small number of these and am sure only FHM were in the traps.
One other twist to this story is that after stocking the CNBG and RES from Dunn's along with my own FHM, I happened to catch 4 nice RES out of my main pond in the 6" to 9" range. All four fish were definitely RES, but one that appeared to be a male did have some reddish tint to the edges of the fins suggesting it could have had some other genetic influence (such as GSF) although the mouth was small and in every other aspect looked like the other RES. These four fish also went into the sediment pond.
I have been trapping fingerling fish (minnow traps)most all summer out of this sediment pond and transferring them to my main 3 acre pond. Probably one in every 30 fish has definite GSF characteristics. What I can not tell for sure is if they are pure GSF (some of them look like it) or if they are hybrids. If they are hybrids, I welcome them. If pure GSF, not so much so (although as I mentioned, I'm not terribly worried given the gazillion BG they are being mixed in with). I've probably put a total of around 500 fingerling fish transferred from this sediment pond to the main pond. From my best identification attempts they seem to be mostly CNBG with a fair number of RES (they definitely look different than the CNBG and the larger ones can have a tiny orange or red speck on the ear tab - GSF influence will usually have more of a reddish translucent margin around all of the tab rather than a solid looking speck of color at the end of the tab). Then there are also some obvious hybrids based on the GSF markings influence but an obviously too small mouth for pure GSF. Then a few that just look like GSF. (I have looked at a LOT of small GSF out of my old pond by trapping them in minnow traps last summer).
Ok this is getting way past long winded. But the point is, the picture below is one of these fish that was transferred earlier this summer into my main pond from the sediment pond. Caught this one last night in the main pond and it has grown from around 2" up to this 5" fish. It looks like a lot of GSF influence for sure. But does anyone see any other species in it to make them believe it is a hybrid? The mouth is big, but it just does not seem like as big of mouth as the native GSF that come from my old pond.
So that is my question. Is this a pure GSF, or a hybrid? My hopes is that it is a hybrid. If it is, it has the potential to get larger than a pure GSF and make a nice fish. (It went back in the pond, by the way). For one fish, it makes little difference. But the question in my mind is, am I transferring a number of GSF over into my main pond, or are all of them actually hybrids????
There should have been no GSF in the sediment pond. Obviously either the one large RES (over 8") that had the red margins on the fins was a hybrid and did a bang up job of reproducing its genetics with one of the other RES and his genetic GSF portion really came out, or the genetics from Dunns was less than stellar. Or somehow GSF got into this sediment pond. I do know that I did get at least a number of pure RES and CNBG from Dunn's because I have caught a number of both from the sediment pond in the 5-6" range that looked fine (and also transferred them to my main pond). So I know not all the fish could have had GSF or been hybrids. And yet all the fish in the bags looked uniform....... Tis a puzzlement!
All the runoff water to this pond comes from my property either from a farm field or farmstead. No water where GSF could come from. I have added no GSF to this pond other than the one RES that I would have said was a very colorful male with the potential to have some GSF genes based on the reddish tint on the borders of his fins (he had a small mouth). I've had trouble with Dunn's fish purity before (
see ye old fish truck strikes again ) and the 200 RES were actually free replacements from my previous experience (I bought the 100 CNBG). Thus my care in observing all the fish in the bags to look for "off" types or anything that would suggest the lot was un-pure. And I know a lot were pure because I have now caught them and both the RES and CNBG look fine. I do have regular green herons, GBH and a great white egret that have visited regularly since last fall, but most foo-foo the idea that birds carry and stock fish in ponds. Raining GSF and they came from the farm field anyone?
I am at a loss where all the GSF influence has came from. I can only guess and have no really good guesses.
Ok, this is EXTRA long winded. For anyone that has made it this far, is the picture below a pure GSF or a hybrid with a lot of GSF characteristics? And if it is a pure GSF, where the heck did it come from? If it is a hybrid, I hope I have transferred lots of them into my pond. If it is pure GSF, not so much so.
As time goes by and some of these grow to a larger size in the sediment pond so I can catch them via hook and line, will try to get better pictures and follow up on how these fish eventually end up. See if they grow to hybrid size or are just GSF.
