Originally posted by jeffhasapond:
...What kind of cross reproduction can we expect. Based upon other threads I know that BG and GSF will cross pollinate or hybridize or what ever you scientific types call it. How will RES play into this? Will this sunfish soup result in a Red Eared, Blue Gilled, Green Streaked mongrel fish?
If you have relatively clear water, your lepomis species will do a nice job of keeping their strains pure. It's generally in turbid water or otherwise stressful conditions that you see hybridization. I know of two different water bodies that I regularly fish that have bluegill, RES and GS, and I only very rarely see a hybrid. I've spent one hundred hours on one of these pits and caught over one thousand sunfish and have only encountered three known hybrids and they were all male BG X RES.
I've also got both species in three of my ponds and I even purposely try to encourage some hybridization by putting all male of one species and all female of the other and it's still hard to get crosses between BG and RES.
Now if you put BG and GS in the same pond with all males of one and all females of the other, well then, you've got a different story and you'll see tons of hybrids.
I really don't think it's anything to worry about if your water is fairly clear.
