Never thought about it before. I bought 40 gal tank to grow 4 koi out in. Released them last week. Then tank was empty. My wife suggested we buy fish and add to tank. One walk through fish store and decided No! Caught a couple beatiful pumpkin seeds from Little Piney Creek and threw in tank. They was happy in tank for a while. Yesterday I decided to see how big my HBG have grown. They hit that worm like a pack of dogs on a 3 legged cat. The one in video I threw in tank. Not sure if its a male or female, but it is a bully. Has anybody else threw fish from pond and stared at their behavior? I'm addicted!
http://youtu.be/vO55duxLZtk

Sure have. It's very interesting to watch the habits of native fish in an aquarium. I've had a variety of species, but my favorite ones to watch have been largemouth (they're like pets), bullheads and gar.

It got to be too time consuming so I gave it up, but the aquarium was 150 gallons so I could do a lot with it for a while there.

Jwwann:

If they are Pumpkinseeds, they aren't pure. The ear tab is wrong for a PS.

Those are longear sunfish(LES). LES are very common in smaller midwest rivers and creeks. They can survive in ponds, but don't do as well in them as some other sunfish species. They also tend to not get overly big. A 6" one is large and an 8" one is a giant. They are very colurful and make excellent aquarium fish... HBG are not very good in aquariums as you can see, they are insanely aggressive and will batter than tank mates to death.

They are indeed long ear sunfish. People around here call them pumkin seeds.
http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/04/introduction_fish_missouri-02-2011.pdf

You can catch these all day long in the creeks and rivers around me. I have not added any to pond fearing they would take over. The Mo state record for one is 11oz. While looking I saw their is no record for yellow perch on alternitive methods. Guess after my yellow perch grow out I will have to set a trot line.
http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/05/state_record_fish_list_2012_10.pdf

Are you sure the new fish in the tank is a HBG?. It sort of looks like a green sunfish, but I did not get a good look from the video. I've had GSF kill BG with both in the same tank during a college student research project. Remove the HBG-GSF when pumpkinseeds appear the least bit stressed.

Wow that fish rivals any tropical fish I have seen!

Definitely LES in the vid....creeks around here are full of them. I couldn't get a good enough look at the other, territorial fish.

Isn't it odd how there are so many mis-identified, or local names for Lepomids?

Yep! A Perch is not always a Perch!

I would love to get my hands on those Sunnies, if only to put them in an aquarium!

I've wanted to set up a native tank for a while now,I honestly don't know why they aren't more popular.

Cecil,another one that I feel rivals most tropical fish in looks is the Tangerine darter.Although I cant find anything about people with them in aquariums.

I bought them as HBG from these guys. I hope they are HBG considering I stocked 100 of them. Man I hope your wrong Bill.

Its a dog eat dog world out there...fish are perhaps the most selfish creatures on the planet....

Native Aquariums Rock! Here is our Smallmouth Bass feeding at our office a couple weeks ago:


She eats lots and lots of fish...

I can catch 100 a hour from Little Piney. I turned the all big ones loose. Half ponders are not uncommon.

That's awesome N8!

I should stock a small pond and start selling them. They are much better looking then any fish at fish store I was at. They wanted $25 for fish half as good looking. I told wife I can catch better looking from Little Piney half mile from house. Excellent RBT from this creek too!

Jwwann:

Go here: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92482#Post92482

Look at the pics and look at your fish truck fish. Let us know what you decide they are.

Jwwann - I could easily be wrong thinking your aquarium fish is a green sunfish. It is hard to see in the video all the proper features for identification. Since the fish came from a fish farm then it is most likely a hybrid bluegill.

But the possibility of being a GSF is there, and here's why. I purchased 100 feed trained SMB from a fish farm in Michigan. Sold 25 of them to 2 different clients and just dumped the rest of them into a small meshed cage in my pond. Didn't even look at them when I dumped them in the cage as I was in a hurry.

Earlier this week I cleaned the fish cages, and transferred the SMB to a cage with larger mesh. During the transfer, I looked at each fish, measured the largest/smallest and counted them. There was a 6" GSF in with the SMB. There are none in my pond, and the mesh of the cage wouldn't allow any fish larger than about 1/2" to escape. The SMB did well, going from fingerlings to 6"-10" fish.

Where did it come from? I have my guesses.......

And furthermore it's very common to have green sunfish and sticklebacks mixed in with fathead minnows when I've bought fatheads minnows in bulk from a local supplier. He gets them shipped up from Arkansas so apparently they have these fish in their ponds with the baitfish.

Anymore, if I buy minnnows in bulk I am sure to sort through them as I don't want either species in my ponds! Last time I bought some it was for forage for my smallmouth broodfish that went off the pellets.

I ended up with more sticklebacks than smallmouth fingerlings! I wonder how many smb fry they ate and/or competed with for zooplankton?

I suspect this is how many pond owners end up with green sunfish in their ponds.

I've sorted thru many FHM from Jones and Andersons on different occasions, and different years. I have yet to find something other than FHM.

Here is another poor quality video I made with phone. I can't tell. I stocked them in oct of last year. They are mean at feed time in pond. Never seen fish feed like them. They are like a school of piranha. Im puting this one back in pond tomorrow for sake of the LES. I hope I didn't stock GSF. Tell me it isn't true!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11gLulzOkfo&list=UUtsKh7PcjwdZIzWlkTRYkyQ&index=1

Crickets

Bill, does this video help any?

Looks like a HBG to me. I think you are fine...

Thanks CJ. I was worried nobody wanted to be the bearer of bad news. I can see as the feed in pond it looks like some have bright orange bellies.

Looked again today as they gobbled up food. Most have a really orange belly as they splash. Actually more an orange yellowish color. I will try to make video of feeding frenzy.