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#443959 04/14/16 02:39 PM
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Hi,

Can you help me id this fish. I don't have a lot of experience and trying to learn.. This comes from a small 1/3 acre pod that was stocked with cat fish and just recently some hybrid blue gill. I found some "volunteer" green sunfish before, not sure if this are just younger green sunfish or something else!..

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Tavo #443960 04/14/16 02:48 PM
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They look like gambusia to me.

Tavo #443961 04/14/16 02:49 PM
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8 minutes, 42 seconds and a helpful PBM gives the answer. What a great place this is!!

Tavo #443962 04/14/16 02:50 PM
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Dang! I'm late! I guess Gam as well. smile


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Tavo #443963 04/14/16 02:54 PM
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+3 on gams


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Tavo #443965 04/14/16 03:19 PM
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OK, where is all this fish coming from!.. The pond was completely dry when I bought the property. I have only added catfish and just recently some hybrid bluegill. Now I have some green sunfish and gambusia.

Tavo #443969 04/14/16 04:24 PM
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Its possible that the fish you stocked were contaminated with mosquitofish also know as Gambusia affinis. Hybrid bluegill are mixed Green sunfish and Bluegill and are 90% male and typically can breed and eventually they revert back to Green sunfish over a course of many years. Birds also may have carried over fish eggs on their feet but typically that's not the case.

Urmetz #443973 04/14/16 04:39 PM
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Originally Posted By: Urmetz
Its possible that the fish you stocked were contaminated with mosquitofish also know as Gambusia affinis. Hybrid bluegill are mixed Green sunfish and Bluegill and have around 90% sterile but 10% typically can breed and eventually they revert back to Green sunfish over a course of many years. Birds also may have carried over fish eggs on their feet but typically that's not the case.


My problem with the bird carrying fish egg theory is this:

If the eggs are sticky enough to stick to the birds feet, how do they become unstuck?

Will the eggs dry out during flight?

If the eggs aren't sticky, how do they make it? I can't see a bird flying with an egg pinched between two toenails.....

If there was ANY high water events where there was 1/2" or 1" of water on top of the ground, the fish could have just swam to the pond.


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Tavo #443974 04/14/16 04:42 PM
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Definitely a common Gambusia Affinis. They somehow get into a pond from any nearby watershed they inhabit, as will green sunfish, given enough time. Gambusia are live bearers like guppies, and can serve as a minor forage fish for small LMB and larger BG, but they commonly stay in VERY shallow water, up in the grass, if available, and have their fry there, so they survive better than fathead minnows (FHM).

esshup #443985 04/14/16 05:34 PM
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Its of course not likely but it does happen. We have corn fields around my house that get flooded by rain every year which pools of water. One year I noticed minnows swimming in one of the pools. There was no running water anywhere around. Here where I live it is completely flat. Fish can also be dispersed by being dropped in a body of water. I don't believe mosquito fish eggs are adhesive though.

Last edited by Urmetz; 04/14/16 05:35 PM.
esshup #443987 04/14/16 05:44 PM
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Originally Posted By: esshup
...My problem with the bird carrying fish egg theory is this:

If the eggs are sticky enough to stick to the birds feet, how do they become unstuck?

Will the eggs dry out during flight?

If the eggs aren't sticky, how do they make it? I can't see a bird flying with an egg pinched between two toenails.....
......


My personal favorite scenarios are, in second place, a King Fisher intentionally brought small fish to the pond to stock it for his future use and .......#1 favorite.....a GBH barfed up live fish into the pond! grin

Last edited by Bill D.; 04/14/16 05:57 PM.

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Tavo #443994 04/14/16 07:09 PM
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Those are not only mosquito fish (Gambusia) but all were female Gambusia. Adult males are more smaller and slender bodies very similar shape to male guppies. Also FYI to all Gambusia do not lay eggs. The young are born-released alive as active swimming individuals.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 04/14/16 07:11 PM.

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Bill Cody #444011 04/14/16 08:35 PM
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Bill C., even more of a reason to discount eggs on a birds feet! laugh


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Tavo #444015 04/14/16 08:43 PM
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Birds don't bring fish any more than storks bring babies.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

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Tavo #444025 04/15/16 01:21 AM
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I actually forgot Gambusia do infact give live birth like guppies and mollies.

Tavo #444029 04/15/16 05:59 AM
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seriously, would guppies and mollies survive and thrive in a pond? {if not eaten}?? Probably a lot cheaper to buy minnows. Just curious.


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Tavo #444031 04/15/16 06:46 AM
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sailfin mollies are native. They are natural colored unlike the pet store domesticated varieties. They make good pond additions IMO.

You probably have them in canals or ditches near you. They are very abundant around coastal areas with brackish or salt waters ditches and canals. if you can collect a few they will do great in your pond. they get pretty good sized too.


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Tavo #444033 04/15/16 06:52 AM
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I would wager that the GAMS where hitchhiking with your other stocked fish.
.
Did you hand sort them before adding them?

I got 50 baby lake chub suckers and found 7 GAMS mixed in when I hand sorted them.

as you can tell they are difficult to even see.


Last edited by BobbyRice; 04/15/16 06:55 AM.

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Tavo #444037 04/15/16 07:12 AM
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I will tell you about the gams @ my property have taken up residence in every little pool of water all over my land. I mean, every little spot of water that is 3 or so inches in depth. I never noticed all of them before this year, but now they are all over the place. I have thought about high water from rains this year, but last year we had more rain, especially here in E. Texas, so why all the gams this year. I have no idea on how they showed up this year over last year.

Tracy

Last edited by TGW1; 04/15/16 07:14 AM. Reason: sp

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Tracy
Tavo #444038 04/15/16 07:17 AM
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Urmetz, you seem to be positive that fish eggs transfer by other creature, animal, or bird and thus stock other bodies of water. How can you be sure when there is so much evidence to contrary, some of this evidence having been presented above?

We all can have our opinions, but the only confirmed way to get hitchhikers into your pond is by intentional stocking. Either a friendly individual trying to do a favor and bucket stocking, or by you unintentionally putting them in with wanted stocker fish as Bobby shows above. These can be confirmed because they can be witnessed and proven.

If you believe strongly that kingfishers carried them to you and dropped them in, or that a fish eating bird happened to burp them in the pond at the right time, then that leads you to many more hard to grasp and hard to prove theories such as the eggs made it through the GI tract of a passing eagle and somehow hatched, or that eggs were really toad eggs but evolved into gambusia.

There always is healthy debate about this topic and I think that debate should continue, but until we can really observe the event happening, we really shouldn't insist that a ridiculous explanation has to be the correct one.

I'll be the first to say that we don't understand all there is to know about nature and how it works. I'm sure if I lived in the days when the earth was 'known' to be flat I would have wondered if that was true too. But until someone observed it to be round, they simply just didn't know...

You never can be too careful when stocking tiny fish and a thorough sorting is a must.

Fish are not dispersed by being dropped into a body of water, except for those intentionally dropped by airplane into remote bodies of water as part of a fish stocking program.

TGW1 #444042 04/15/16 07:24 AM
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I have gams and they are good forage for small LMB. And man can they hide in shallow water! I'm glad to have them

Anyone ever seen it rain tiny toads?
Mother Nature can do some strange things

Last edited by Pat Williamson; 04/15/16 07:28 AM.
TGW1 #444046 04/15/16 08:23 AM
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Originally Posted By: TGW1
I will tell you about the gams @ my property have taken up residence in every little pool of water all over my land. I mean, every little spot of water that is 3 or so inches in depth. I never noticed all of them before this year, but now they are all over the place. I have thought about high water from rains this year, but last year we had more rain, especially here in E. Texas, so why all the gams this year. I have no idea on how they showed up this year over last year.

Tracy


Tracy:

They could have only been a few pair per puddle last year, and after reproducing numerous times now they are easy to see.


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canyoncreek #444056 04/15/16 10:09 AM
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If you look back at my original comment I stated that most likely the Gambusia were accidentally stocked with the desired fish. I also stated that there of course is the possibility of birds transporting eggs etc. and I stated that this is rarely ever the case. The odds are slim to none however do I believe has this ever happened before in history, yes I do. There are numerous shore birds around the world and they often times wade around bodies of water. If lets say heron steps in a shallow nest of green sunfish which by the way green sunfish often times nest extremely close to shore. Ps green sunfish usually lay several thousands of eggs. The heron then flys off with eggs attached to its feathers, feet, etc. and goes to a near by body of water and the eggs splash off the body of the heron when landing in water. This is why I don't understand how hard it is to believe that this could happen. I also never talked about a kingfisher grabbing a fish and dropping into water. Furthermore I did not ever mention eagles digesting eggs and the eggs somehow hatch after being digested. I never also stated that this was the case but instead just listed as example.

esshup #444057 04/15/16 10:14 AM
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In this case, I think it was probably from a high water event, as we have several last year. The hybrid bluegill were stocked this past weekend and the gambusia and green sunfish were there before. Also, I did check the catfish when stocked and there were only catfish looking fish on it!, granted I'm no expert and could have missed them. There are a couple of ponds above mine, across a road, it is possible that the road flooded enough for the fish to get into my pond. I guess I'll be adding a predator fish soon. Thinking off some HSB or maybe LMB...

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Hybrid bluegills are not 90% sterile. Just sayin'.


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If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
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