Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Will GSF and CNBG Spawn together left on their own

Bill:

First off, HBG cannot really revert back to either GSF or BG over time. Their offspring will always have a mixture of BG and GSF genes. The selective forces controlling the HBG pond may favor either the BG or the GSF genes, so that eventually the Fx (generation "x" of the HBG) offspring more closely resemble BG or GSF (apparently what has happened in your pond), or neither set of traits may be favored in which case most of the surviving Fx may have a noticeable mix of BG & GSF genes.

Think of a gallon of red paint mixed with a gallon of white paint - no matter how you filter, strain, or centrifuge the mixture, it's always going to be pink. Maybe you can get a rather reddish pink or a pink so pale it's close to white, but it's still pink.

Second, the theoretical reassurance. While natural crosses between different species of Lepomis do occasionally occur, they happen quite rarely due to many factors that serve to differentiate between species at spawning time. These include visual clues (different eartabs, for instance), temperature preferences, and (something I don't think about too often) different auditory signals (grunts versus wolf whistles, maybe). These all serve to keep the vast majority of Lepomis matings intra-species, instead of mixed.

Due to the huge fecundity advantage (CN)BG have over HBG (ewest recently cited 50,000 eggs per BG female as opposed to 1,000 per HBG), plus multiple spawns being more likely for BG, on top of the fact that HBG (even Fx) have relatively few females wrt males, if the pond is managed to the (CN)BG's benefit (i.e. a nice, healthy population of bass to eat small sunfish, especially long, easy to swallow ones that are shaped more like GSF), the (CN)BG will greatly outnumber the Fx HBG in a fairly short time. I would guess 2-3 years at most.

Third, the practical reassurance. I built and stocked (in 2003) my first pond BPB (before Pond Boss), with equal numbers of BG and HBG. I have kept a bass-heavy condition since day one and manage for large BG. I have not seen any HBG (or any GSF-like traits on native-born BG) since 2004! My BG have completely overwhelmed the HBG with shear numbers.