Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose bream photo, 3 species

The warmouth photo I took awhile back was horrible, so I guess no one can view the 1 lb + warmouth, but here is a good shot of the three most common bream species in GA

Hey Greg, that is a much nicer photo. : )

What is the one in the middle?

Pondmeisters:

In the photo provided by Georgia-based fisheries biologist Greg Grimes, note the jaw construction of the warmouth. Any wonder how it competes with bass?

Mark McDonald
Editor, Pond Boss

So maybe that's not a warmouth! Ha ha ha Reminds me of our Rock Bass a bit.. at least the mouth size in comparison to body size. Kind of an odd looking fish actually.

Well whatever it turns out to be... kind of ugly... never seen anything exactly like it before.

As with Cecil we have alot of B-Gill/Pumpkinseed crosses.

Sorry fellas,
The top fish is a bluegill, middle fish is a green sunfish, bottom one is a redear. Warmouth look a little different than the green sunfish. Greens have a black dot at the rear of their dorsal fin. Other fins are trimmed in orange, gold or bright yellow. Warmouth have dark fins, with irridescent small reddish specks along their sides.

I thought the middle one at least had some green sunfish it it although I've neve seen one that dark. God,I think green sunfish and hybrid bluegills are ugly! Wouldn't have any in my ponds!

Bob, our warmouth up here or more of a bronzish with brown mottling. Haven't seen any red on them yet.

That is kinda why I posted it. I never covered green or warmouth in Ich class, but tried to key it out. Usually not too hard to tell them apart. It had teeth on its tongue (warmouth), but their eyes are usually reddish. It also as you can see had the light colored fin edges (green sunfish). Mouth slightly past eye (warmouth) My key did not list the dorsal fin spines of greens, anyone know this? I think it could be some type of cross between the two?

How big to the Green Sunfish get where you guys are located? I have a cousin who caught the Alabama State record Green Sunfish about 17 years ago - only 15 oz. Doesn't sound too big, but evidently this one was a freak of nature. Caught it in Bayview lake, known for pollution. It was one ugly brute.

I think it could very well be a warmouth/ green sunfish hybrid. When I took a fish identification class in college we were told hybridzation among certain species of sunfish is very common. Even biologists have trouble from time to time.

Working for a short time in the fisheries field and as a fish taxidermist I have seen a lot of natural hybrids. I commonly see natural bluegill/redear hybrids and I have seen and still see from time to time natural black/white crappies. They will look like one of the species of crappie but have the spine count of the other.

A pumpkinseed/bluegill hybrid is another common one up here.

The way I understand it, if prime spawning sites are limited as in a small pond than there tends to be more hybrization for obvious reasons. I suspect most state record bluegills are actually hybrids whether intentionally stocked are natural hybrids.

Middle fish also looks like a hybrid to me. Interesting to note if Greg had lots of those or just one or two. If the middle one is numerous can you get a pic of one that's not so dark? He indicates that they are common. Is that actually true for the specific one in the middle??? The middle one looks like it has some green sunfish in it but probably not pure strain.

Thanks for your help guys. Yes I see redear/bluegill hybrids quite often in like you said bream crowded situations. No the hybird or whatever he is in the middle is not common, sorry. I was referring to warmouth. In my work I get bluegill, then redear then warmouth a distance third in common sunfish species rank. The lake where I collected these only had the one warmouth/green sunfish. Typically the warmouth are lighter. The big one I caught awhile back was very light in color, too bad I only had the cheap throwaway camera with me.

Greg,

Havent you figured it out yet, our Ichthyology class was a waste of time. Class should have been titled The History of Fishes.

Green sunfish dorsal fin with 10(9-11) spines and 11(10-12)soft rays. Anal fin soft rays 9-10(8-11) Pectoral fin rays 13-15

Warmouth - dorsal fin with 10(9-11) spines and usually 10 soft rays. anal fin soft rays 9-10 pectoral fin rays 12-13

I see those "black" greensunfish a couple times a year in my shocking surveys.