Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose The coveted bluegill/redear sunfish hybrid

Bruce I hate to be the one to point this out but....



THAT'S 3 FISH!




(but I especially like the one in the middle)

I'm sitting here rocking back and forth, back and forth, coveting that fish.

Top BG , bottom RES , Middle (place of honor) RES X BG cross expressing hybrid vigor. --

Bruce - where is the rest of the story .

I had those three fish in an 1100 gallon metal stock tank all winter. They were fed fathead minnows, worms and pellets. They all started out the same size. I caught them out of my Dad's pond and one of my other ponds last fall.

I've also caught a few RES/BG hybrdis from an interstate borrow pit in the last couple of weeks. I'll try to get pictures of those later.

I've never seen a picture of these three fish together, so I thought I'd be Cody-esque, and get a good photo. I know Bill Cody would have done a better job, though. He would have had them lined up on the cutting board better, and he would have had their fins more evenly spread open.

Two other notes...

Those fish came from a pond that had no fish in it, and I put in male bluegill (not CSBG), and female redears.

AND, I think that might actually be a female. I plan on getting photos of one of the apparent males.

Now that got my attention - beautiful fish.
Do y'all think I've got a chance for a BG/RES hybrid in 1/4 acre pond with limited spawning area, that has been muddy all spring?

How old do they have to be to ID?

Good questions. I think if people were to know what they're looking for, they'd realize that they catch a few more hybrids than initially thought. I think there is an excellent chance that there would be at least a couple of hybrids in that situation. That's one of the reasons I wanted to post this picture, to help people with the ID process.

I think I was able to identify some of the hybrids as early as age-1.

BRUCE -- Do you know what you said ? A female RES x BG is rare. I sure hope you have that fish alive if it is female. Think what Doc Frankenbruce could do with it wrt back crosses and fertility etc. - - -



HYBRIDIZATION OF FISHES IN NORTH AMERICA
(FAMILY CENTRARCHIDAE)
by

W.F. CHILDERS


Sexually mature F1 hybrids were collected from each population and sexed. Of the 10 kinds of viable F1 hybrids, seven were predominately males (RB, BR, and BG were 97 percent males; ....


That is akin to Bill noticing and Shorty finding the elusive female HBG.

George in one study they consistently and repeatedly produced BG X RES crosses in small swimming pools IIRC by placing BG (one gender) with RES (other gender).

By the way, all those fish should be age-3. I think the redear would be bigger than the bluegill if it was a pellet eater, but he isn't.

Congratulations, Master. Your exhibit for the Mad Scientists' Convention is being prepared even now.
-"Igor" Gallus


Is there a "don't" missing in there?

Bruce didn't mention how much time and effort he has put into successfully breeding BGxRES. Several years' worth of attempts, IIRC.

Bruce would it be appropriate to ask how you sucessfully bred BGxRES?

Sure!

All it takes is a pond with no existing sunfish, then add male bluegills and female redears. It takes over a year because in order for me to ID female redears I have to pick gravid females, and it seems to be the following breeding season that the fun begins.

I like how some of them have what I call a "chainsaw" patterning. If you look at the vertical bars, I try to imagine that instead of dark bars, we're looking at light bars that look like a chain from a chainsaw.

Anybody else see this?

Bruce, you did not remove the red fringe from the RES' gill tabs, correct?

Correct. I probably would if I was using male redears.

Thanks - 12" RES and 10+" TAF CNBG in muddy small pond, so if they can't see the red ear do you think they might have danced?

I'll be watching - thanks for the photos for future reference..

HYBRID SUNFISH FOR STOCKING SMALL PONDS
WILLIAM E. RICKER
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Wawasee Hatchery. Area--0.32 acre. This pond
was stocked in April 1942 with 10-15 male bluegills and an equal
number of female redears. There were apparently two principal
spawning times, which produced fish of two size groups distinct
enough to be followed through the season.

Male bluegills and female redears were put into a pond in early
spring, and the resulting spawning was at least. reasonably successful.
The number of fingerlings obtained (46,000) was said, however, to be
less than what is usually recovered from the reproduction of either of
the parent species, by itself, in a similar pond. These fish were subsequently
distributed into a number of waters.

Very nice Bruce!