Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bruce's CSBG's are blue!

Anybody else's bluegill fingerlings look entirely blue in the water? Maybe it's my water color? I'll have to get a pic soon.

That's strange, because half of my smallest fingerlings are blue, too.

I haven't seen any difference in adults, however, If anything their colors are a little more vivid. I've attributed that to the fact that they are getting all they need nutritionally.

Bruce, this is just "crazy thinking" but the way you manage for the best males and females in your BG ponds, is it possible that each year your BG also have better/brighter color? Just a side effect of selecting the best of the best? Like I said just thinking, and color may be do more to water color/quality, more than selective harvest. your thoughts?

How is the water clarity? Could that have any bearing?

Water has a brown color to it and seechi dish reading is 3 feet.

(Were you asking me Dave?)

Not crazy thinking at all.

I've often thought that I may be selecting for certain traits subconsciously. I'll be selecting here in about eight weeks which fish go into "the program". I.E., YOY's that are speeding past the others in growth.

When sorting older fish I try to just look for most rapid growth, i.e. age-2 fish that are 9+ inches, but I think I'm also favoring the prettiest fish a little bit, when all other things are equal.

I love the colors of 'straight' bluegill males. That is why I opted for half and half CN and BG for my pond. I am anxious to see the mixture. But, I just had to have some dark orange/lavender bull bream.

Either or both of you Cecil. I'm sure you certainly know that fish have, for the most part, a pasty, washed out, colorless look in turbid water and more coloration in clearer water. I've also noticed that fish, of the sunfish family, on high protein feed have a lot more coloration.

If you have 3 ft of visibility, I figure it's either the feed or Dr. FrankenBruces strange machinations and manipulations of the gene pool.

It would be interesting to segregate some to change feeds and/or visibility into test and control groups to determine the causes.

You are SOOOOO shallow. What about the BG with nice personalities?

I agree Theo, it sounds like Bruce is raising a pond of prima donna BG.

Or not necessarily just subconciously according to some genetic reading I've been doing. Sometimes when we select for one trait another trait goes along with it. There is a term for it but I'm too lazy to look it up. Unfortunately there can be a downside to this also. Sometimes a bad trait is paired with a trait we want i.e. lower immune response etc.

I'm pretty sure Bruce you are not only selecting for fast growers but also the most aggressive fish at the chow line which can go hand in hand. Only downside to that is they may not be converting at an optimum rate, but who cares in our goals to grow the fastest growing largest fish. If we were growing lots and lots of bluegills for the food market, and were concerned mainly about feed costs it would be a different story.

Sorry about the poor quality of the picture due to the glare (you can see the clouds in the water) but if you look closely you can see the blue fingerlings. Not all the fingerlings are blue though.

The little critters are COLD! Need to warm em up!

Cecil, I have noticed over the years that some of our BG fingerlings (2-5") have lightly "sky blue" tinted tail fins and others do not. The tinting on the fins seems to dissappear as they get bigger though.

Imagine what would happen if Bruce started selecting for talking fish. In five years we could have conversations with our BG

Cecil,

Bruce has a holding pond with deeply dyed blue water. He calls it the Toilet Bowl due to the blue dye and round shape of this pond. He dumps the less vigorous fingerlings there and those are the fingerlings that he gives or sells to friends, family, and customers.

The color will flush out of them with time and they will be runts their entire life (generally 3 years or less). Bruce keeps all the gargantuan fingerlings for his own purposes.

Bruce did give one of the gargantuan ones if I promised to keep his notebook running free of charge. That YOY BG is already 7.5" inches long and has been seen chasing a 9 pound NP (with a fearful look in its eyes) around the Bremer Pond.

Sorry Cecil.

Dwight here is Bruce's indoor pond. Once he tried to boil YP alive in it.

Sunil provided this :

This is Condello's guest bath tub. When he serves carp to his guests for dinner, he never tells them where the carp came from.

I know, I know. It's just sick.

...thanks for ferreting out that story

Haha complete with ferret to guard the tub o' grub.

Cecil, this is the Fantasia of pond pictures.

I thought it looked like a horrific snowstorm.

ewest, Could you ask Sunil if that is lime flavored sloe gin in that bottle. The Ferret looks a little tight. Otherwise, everything looks normal to me (for Bruce's place).

Just in case anyone things I'm complaining that the bluegills are blue I'm not. I'm as happy as a clam with offspring from Bruce's bluegills. Just thought it was cool at many of them are blue at this stage. I'm sure they will be normal colored later and in fact when removed from the water may not even look blue.

...as long as they don't look like carp.....or a ferret.

Or "green carp."