Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Product sources Where to acquire green sunfish in north texas.

I am looking to work with green sun fish in my aquaponics (read: RAS) system . I have found it impossible to find the green sunfish from texas pond stocking suppliers. Does anyone have any other recommendations?

I have had multiyear success with catfish, tilapia and bluegill in my aquaponics systems. (I have to bvring the tilapia indoors from late october through mid april.) In addition to those fish, I am currently working with LMB, black crappie and red ear sunfish (In early stages of freed training)

Green sunfish interest me to hybrid with bluegill. I would rather try to reproduce my own than buy hybrid bluegill every year or two.

While i dont have interest in pond stocking i find the pond boss magazine and this forum provides a lot of useful information to raising native fish in a a closed recirculating system. Different destinations but the road/information is the same.




thanks,
brian

Welcome to the forum! Offhand I don't know of any GSF suppliers in Texas, but maybe one of our Texas members does.

Look for a TX supplier who sells HBG. Some import their HBG from other fish farms but many produce their own and would need GSF to do so.

Hang around here. Somebody will be bitching about them.

Thanks for the warm welcome and the suggestions. I sent an e-mail to texas parks and wildlife and they refered me to http://www.texasaquaculture.org/PDF/Avail_List.pdf. I have sent an e-mail to the reasonable close (~2 hours drive) to dallas pond places that i found on this list. Most just said they do not carry green sunfish and that they get their hybrids from someplace else. TBH i dont think any of them actually hatch their own fish. They all seem to get their stock from hatcheries in oklahoma or arkansas. A couple didnt respond to my e-mail.


I also submitted a request for quote to the only online source i could find (thanks google) smithcreekfishfarm.com . The response was "Out of range" I am not sure i know exactly what that means. I assume they dont ship to texas, but i am sure fed ex can next day from their location so i dont know what the deal would be. It also ocured to me that maybe an item on my request was out of the range of expected input and some computer kicked it out with an auto responded. I have no idea, but i wont be wasting anymore time trying to communicate with a company that has such poor customer service that they cant even paste a coherant canned response.

Anyway, if anyone knows a spot around lavon or hubbard with green sunfish, let me know. I guess i will have to try to domesticate some from the wild.

Thanks,
brian

It is very hard to find pure GSF. I have not seen a hatchery indicate that they had them for sale. Obviously CJ is correct in that HBG come from crossing BG and GSF and the producer should have access to pure GSF. It is worth trying. Let us know what you find out. Note that the wild ones may not be pure.

Fenders Fish Hatchery in Baltic OH used to ship pure strain GSF to California for university research. Contact them for availability and possible arrangements. You can use my name as a reference.
http://www.fendersfishhatchery.com/default.htm

This is probably due to the inherent incompatability of the terms "pure" and "GSF". Although either term may have meaning when standing alone, when combined there is a fundamental lack of internal consistancy, indeed the combined meaning is ridiculous. To borrow from George Will, other examples might be "Somolian Government", or "family vacation".
The term "Pure GSF" is therefore an oxymoron.

Please do not allow this brief foray into lexicography to deter you in your admirable quest to dilute the genetic material of the abominable GSF.

^^^ I can hear "Sheldon Cooper" saying those words ...........Bazinga!!! .

Bill Cody,

Thanks for the recommendation. E-mail sent. *crosses fingers*


brian

Sometimes a phone call works better with the fish farms compared to email. Call if the email is not answered in 2 days.

Absolutely, I dont mind calling but I like e-mails because people can answer them when they have time. I find that fish farms dont always have a dedicated receptionist set aside to answer calls. hehe


brian

bcotton, Fenders will bend over backwards to help you. If they're open, someone will answer the phone. If they don't have it, they will point you in the direction of dealers who have it.

Great family owned operation (for 60+yrs). Dennis, the founder is a hoot. He's 80+ but works the fish farm every day (and knows what he is talking about). You don't meet people like him every day.

Call and talk to him if you can,,, Tell him his wrestling bud from Sunbury, Ohio said hi.

He'll talk to you all day long on the phone..

Exactly fish n chips....He will tell different (true) stories often but there is a lot of knowledge in those stories. I've learned a lot from him by just talking to him.

Like I said, a great family owned operation!!! And they raise llamas also.