Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Black Bluegill ?

Yesterday when fishing my son said he saw a “black fish”. I kinda shrugged it off and didn’t pay much attention to it. This afternoon we were fishing on the pier and feeding on and off by the handful. He said - look dad there it is, as he was feeding the fish. All the others were aggressively attacking the pellets and the darker colored fish just swam slowly around near the surface under the pellets as the others darted from the dark depths and then back out of sight. I grabbed the cast net and luckily caught it first cast.


Any thoughts on what / why this little joker is so black ? Pictured beside it is a straight bluegill.

Thanks.

Thanks

I have read that blindness can cause a fish to be lighter in color...I wonder if the same can be true for a darker color? Or, not neccesarliy blindness, but a vision problem?

It looks to be a bit stunted whereas the other fish is eating well. I'm betting its vision is impaired somehow and it is affecting its ability to feed.

The black fish looks like a male redear sunfish to me. Often centrarchid males get much darker before and during spawn. Particularly in clear water where it probably serves to protect the male protecting the nest from being spotted by avian predators. So are redears about to spawn in your area? If so, this may be the reason it is so dark in color.

Can I change my bet to what JP said, or at least bet the same amount...LOL

I`m leaning with Noel on this. Either eyes are not functioning correctly or something else physically is causing the fish to not respond to pellets.

Thanks the the info. Now that you mention it about being blind...it makes sense. He was just casually cruising beneath the pellets while all others were attacking it. And, when i tossed the cast net out, right at the release point ( throwing it about 5 feet out) there were 30+ eating and i caught only 2 with one being the dark one. Also to note, when we released it, it darted right into a baketball size clump of moss and got stuck - my son reached in and free'd him so he could swim away. It's the 3rd time we've seen it...maybe i can catch it again. With regard to it being a RES, i couldn't see any "red ear" on it at all. I've attached another pic.

others look just fine.

It does resemble a RES...small mouth and some similar patterns in its dark colors. IIRC RES don't feed train that easily. I'm now betting its a vision impaired RES in breeding colors. My bases are covered.

After seeing the close up, I would say there is RES heritage but I also see what appears to be GSF or HBG heritage. If I had to risk a wager, I'd put my money on a male mutt in a clear or tannin stained pond that may be Fx.

Lots of things can and do affect fish color. Some good ones are in the post above. There are several good threads on fish coloration if you want to read them.

IMO that fish has RES genes.

Just a thought about the dark fish-- the description of swimming lazily while other BGs are feeding, aggressively attacking the pellets. I've seen similar behavior of a few fish that were stressed and died within a few days in my pond this spring. I'm not sure why the LMBs don't make quick work of stressed fish, unless they can sense something undesirable about a fish that is sick or stressed?? Just another possibility other than blindness. The fish that stressed in my pond seemed oblivious to their surroundings. By that I mean they swam erratically and at times swam right into the edge of the bank- literally bumping into it. Almost like they were blind. In several cases turned a darkened coloration too. In my experience this spring, the fish that stressed don't recover. If this is a blind or stressed fish, hopefully it's the only one you find.