Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations RES info and links

I have a particular interest in RES. Did searches to see what I could find out from older threads, so decided the effort might benefit others interested specifically in Redear Sunfish (RES) also. Below are the links to old threads I found with useful info on RES. Newer links are listed in another post down below.

Breeding between BG & RES 2008

RES eating AM500? 2013

Sexing RES 2013

Stock to many RES? 2013

RES habitat 2013

RES & HBG stocking 2011

Will add some more as I find them.

Pellet training RES 2013
Update to above thread with results. Turned my winter RES loose today 6-1-2014

RES spawning 2013

RES Management 2013

Unknown Facts RES 2009 starting page 10
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I get the uneasy feeling that Redear are mean? Dare I swim in the pond again??????
----------------------------------------------------
mtalley: Today I spotted three large RES in the shallow end of my pond. Wonder what they were plotting?
Bruce Condello: That's easy....Your demise.

Sheesk! Maybe I don't want these fish in my pond after all!!!!!

More unknown facts 2009 starting page 1

I went back and looked at the management link Bruce management link ............notice Bruce is only displaying 3 fingers????? Hmmmm? Maybe there is a reason he raises such big RES and only 3 fingers showing? Feeding a little more than AquaMax Bruce???......LOL OK, OK I got side tracked. Reading all that scary stuff made me go back and look.

If others have useful links to RES, please add them as I am interested.

Edit 2/28/2014 add link Redear in the winter

Edit 3/6/2014 thread about YP eggs but gravitates to RES behavior

Edit 4/19/2014 RES Dying

Edit 4/28/2014 Fingernail clams and Redear

Edit 6/7/2014 Redear feeding - old post from 2004 but recent re-visited

Edit 6-8-2014 Stock RES early or later?

Edit 6-10-2014 Whats up with my Redear?

RES on pellets

Edit 6-17-2014 Anise worm questions and RES

Edit 7-9-2014 RES - where did they go / how deep to fish

Edit 7-27-2014 http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=383405#Post383405 Discussion on RES only pond

Edit 7-27-2014 2009 thread about RES and Zebra Mussles

Edit 8-11-2014 What do RES eat?

Edit 8-17-2014 RES spawning late in the year

More links listed lower down in this thread. All the newer links are listed in another post down below.

Ok, esshup, thanks for adding the picture,.....I think.

But now I am worried.

A month ago, before reading all the unknown facts and leaving to warmer climates for the winter, I took our 10 gallon aquarium with 4, 3" RES and bequeathed it to my three smallest grandkids that are in the 6-10 year old range. The grandkids were going to grow the (pellet trained) fish up and we would release the RES next spring into the newly refurbished pond I created for them last fall. Reclaiming a 50 year old pond

I have not heard from them in a while.

Maybe they haven't learned how to dial a phone with their nose yet?

Testing Recent Posts Island.......

Pretty good short RES article RES, are they still in your pond?

At first I thought you meant the RES! I know they're smart, but dang!

Hey don't put it past 'em. Compliments of Ande from another site:

http://www.fish-school.com/publicity/guinness.jpg

Sorry. Supposed to be a video of the fish in action. Not sure why it won't work.

Barry Smith , author of the article above, is an owner of American Sport Fish.

Just ran across this old PB article that is featured on SDstate outreach web site to add to this RES info thread.

RES article PBM May-June 2010 PDF download

This article gives me additional insight into my "RES heavy" pond I desire in this thread green sunfish in RES pond thread The Missouri research was of particular interest, as it showed good RES population in the presence of GSF.

Great thread!!!

My edits are getting so long in the original post, going to start putting the new RES links here.

8-18-2014 From post on 6-10-13 RESx BG Hybrids

8-19-2014 RES article with a good general overview of the fish

8-28-2014 Redear source for northern climates?

10-7-2014 RESxGSF hybrids

11-12-2014 RES diet

11-7-2014 What do baby RES eat? (short answer - they are not big enough to eat full sized humans yet)

11-7-2014 What do RES eat? (surprisingly, not whole humans - but not because they do not want to. Usually only fingers )

3-12-2015 Why do Redear despise me?

3-12-2015 Late RES spawn

3-30-2015 Rolling spawn and natural hybridization

4-6-2015 They really do exist

5-10-2007 RES on very shallow beds

5-19-2015 Low and slow - Catching RES thread by Shorty

6-9-2015 Male RES sprkplug showing RES known to be male

6-22-2015. Will RES herd FHM

6-24-2015 RES in NE Iowa

10-20-2015 Same RES?

11-16-2015 RES relative weight chart

11-25-2015 RES and Zebra mussells

12-19-2015 Pumpkinseed tendencies This thread is about PS, but there is lots of discussion of how they compare to RES and how they do together with RES

2-27-2016 RES cold tolerence
This thread is about ice out, and starting with this post discusses RES tolerance to cold and winter survival

4-19-2016 First RES caught

4-27-2016 Giant RES

4-27-2016 cnbg/res mix? Can CNGB cross with other fish like regular BG?

5-3-2016 Hybred RES growing nicely Discussion on Male BG x female RES hybrids purchased from commercial fish farm

5-19-2016 RES Discussion about how to catch RES

5-31-2016 RES control of Zebra mussel

6-28-16 Not seeing any RES Not seeing RES feeding along with his BG

7-5-2016 RES or BRES Picture of fingerling fish wondering if it is a RES or hybrid

7-17-2016 Talks about hybrid bluegill but page two turns into a RES discussion

7-18-2016 Typical BG coloration Starts out about BG but numerous good pictures of RES in the thread

8-16-2015 Quick Sein survey Shorty running a sein and showing lots of good pictures of small RES

8-5-2016 A few RES this week Shorty

9-1-2016 Thread about fingerling identification starts out BG, HBG and GSF but adds in RES later in the thread Fingerling identification

9-14-2016 Stocking some Red Ear Question about stocking RES in a pond with predators already established

9-25-2016 Redear id

9-25-2016 catching RES by fly rod

10-11-2016 Redear disappeared? having trouble finding his RES and what to do about it

10-20-2016 Lowering pond level to control FA in NEDOC's RES/SMB pond This is his trophy RES pond.

10-30-2016 Pond dedicated to raising RES fingerlings small forage pond dedicated to raising RES fingerlings and minnows

11-18-2016 A pond dedicated to redear sunfish Construction of a pond being built specifically to be a RES only pond.

3-4-2017 scott69 thread on trying to get RES on Optimal feed

4-14-17 RES do they have multiple spawns? Spawning depth

4-14-17 BG/RES ID? Mostly discussion on BG, but also some discussion on RES hybrids

4-29-2017 RES ID request for identification of three fish pictures including at least one RES

6-9-17 RES spawn

10-28-17 Raising Redear in a cage thread by Reno403

11-7-17 BG or RES fingerling? by KapHn8d

11-26-2017 Raising RES in a cage by scott69

Edit 12-15-17 Are RESxBG hybrids feed trainable old thread from 2012 brought back to life

Edit 3-19-2018
Fingerling identification between RES and CNBG

Edit 6-21-18 Hungry Redear by CMM

Edit 7-18-18 RES spawning habits by chunting

Edit 7-30-18 RES deep spawning beds in a clear quarry by scott69

Edit 9-15-2018 KapHn8d thread requesting fish ID videos of what may be RES stalking minnows

Edit 10-17-2018 RES in Nebraska by jwetovick asking about the species

Edit 10-17-2018 Fish parasites thread by Quarter Acre. Not specifically about RES but why you want RES in your pond.

Edit 11-1-2018 structure for redear discussion started by TGW1 about creating structure specifically to attract RES

Edit 2-16-2019. Are RES good for a pond?

Edit 3-13-2019. Thread by Geosteve asking about a RES and HSB stocking option in small pond

Edit 6-3-2019. new Iowa state record RES

Edit 6-19-2019. How to identify RES by setterguy

Edit 6-26-2019. Feeding baby RES

Edit 2-8-2020 Thread by NEDOC feed training and capturing RES

Edit 2-7-2020 Thread referencing this thread - is this circular logic at work????

Edit 2-13-2020 Where to buy RES in Wisconsin thread

Edit 3-31-2020 Thread by jpsdad with questions on LMB and RES together

Edit 4-16-2020 Shorty thread on RES fanning out beds in aquarium

Edit 4-23-2020 Theo Gallus experience with BGxRES hybrids

Edit 6-23-2020 What do RES eat?

RES compatibility

Snrub, did you know that RES love to eat common black crickets and spotted camel (brown) crickets?

On a food preference list I would rank crickets higher than bloodworms as a prefered food item.

I would rank food items as follows

Stubby Steve's
brown crickets (never tried black ones)
worms (blood and red)

See this thread re RES food items

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post258403

Thanks Eric!

I have a new small batch of RES in my 75 gallon aquarium that I am pellet training just for fun, I'll toss an occasional cricket in the feed ring and it is "gone in .6 seconds".

I still haven't figured out what exactly it is about AM500 they don't like, might be taste, texture, or both, but half of them have figured out that AM500 is better than going hungry. I watched my largest RES (5") eat ten AM500 pellets in a few minutes two weeks ago, once they figure it out they seem to be OK with pellets.

No I did not. Thanks for the info. Will remember that when I try to catch some.

Ewest

What stores can u find Stubby Steve's in , I live in the Houston Tx area and have not heard of this bait before

Thanks
Pat W

Very interesting on what the different lepomis eat. All the scientific names are confusing, but Shawn Banks gives a good overview in this thread.

Shawn Banks has a couple of posts in this thread about RES diet

Here is the specific quote from Shawn: I'll break down the table that Ewest pasted. L. macrochirus is the bluegill and L. microlophus is the redear. The real interesting tidbit from this table (Tabel 2- the top table) involves the food items. The taxonomy might confuse you, but everything listed is either an invertebrate or a plant. EXCEPT for the heading Osteichthyes- these are fish. Notice the how many fish were found in the redear's gut? None.

He notes that there were no fish eaten by RES. I also noticed that in general there was very little fish consumption for all the sunfish. Could this be because the BOW's where the studies were done had abundant other forage? I had always heard and thought that BG and other sunfish did a number on small fish fry. Maybe eating fish is only done when more preferred/easier to catch other food is not available.

I was thinking Shorty said his FHM's would disappear at night when put in with his RES. So they surely eat fish under some conditions, but obviously not in that study in that BOW.

Notice in the bottom studies, there are no RES included, so can't tell anything specifically about RES.

But look how few fish were found in the stomachs of the various sunfish. Some studies none and others only a very few. Even the much maligned GSF has not eaten many fish. Mostly other stuff.

Seems strange to me. Must have had plenty of other preferred stuff to eat. Or maybe time of year study was done?????

Bottom three studies on the page

Snrub, overall length of a FHM seemed to play a big role in whether or not my aquarium RES would actually eat a FHM or not. Mine definitely had a size/length preference for eating smaller and shorter fish.

If the FHM was too long and the tail stuck out of the RES mouth they would spit the FHM out most of the time, if they could fit the entire FHM in their mouth they would pop their jaw several times, crush it, and eat it. When they were smaller and eating night crawler pieces I inadvertently cut some night crawler chunks that were longer than normal, and they simply refused to eat the longer pieces. My thought was that maybe they needed to have their mouth closed completely in order to utilize their crusher teeth in the back of their throat.

I do know there has been at least one study done on RES and size preferences of snails that they eat. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society - Article first published online: 3 APR 2007

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-7345.2003.tb00075.x/abstract

Prey-size Preference, Maximum Handling Size, and Consumption Rates for Redear Sunfish Lepomis microlophus Feeding on Two Gastropods Common to Aquaculture Ponds

Abstract
Maximum handling sizes, prey size and species preferences, and ad libitum consumption rates were determined for three size classes of redear sunfish Lepomis microlophus feeding on Physa gyrina and Helisoma trivolvis, two common aquaculture-pond snails which serve as intermediate hosts for fish parasites. Maximum handling-size experiments indicated that redear sunfish as small as 14-cm total length were capable of consuming all sizes of Physa typically observed in ponds, whereas only redear sunfish of at least 32-cm total length are capable of consuming all commonly observed sizes of pond-dwelling Helisoma. When presented with a range of sizes of both snail species, redear sunfish consumed higher proportions of smaller- and medium-sized snails; the largest snails offered were uneaten or consumed in relatively small quantities. Multiple linear regression was applied to consumption data to develop a simple model for predicting mean daily ad libitum consumption rate (g/g per d) for redear sunfish feeding on snails with temperature (20–27 C) and fish total length (9–24 cm) as independent variables. Our findings will facilitate prediction of numbers of redear sunfish of a given size required to control populations of Physa and Helisoma in ponds. Such predictions will enable pond owners to quickly evaluate whether stocking redear sunfish as a control agent for undesirable snail populations will be economically and logistically feasible. Findings also indicate potential limitations in the use of redear sunfish to control populations of Helisoma due to the inability of redear sunfish as large as 24-cm total length to consume the largest 30–40% of Helisoma commonly observed in ponds and to the expense of stocking larger fish (32-cm total length) capable of consuming all sizes of Helisoma.


Thank you Dr. Willis.

PDF link to the entire article

Pat, you can call Stacy from the number on their web site and ask her. Or just order direct from them. They are a small family business and Steve is a great guy.

Pat, IIRC, Todd Overton is a dealer for Stubby Steve's as well as Temple Fork Fly Rods, spin and casting rods.
George

George thanks again for info.
Dave thanks also
Pat W

Or you can send her a PM --

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showprofile&User=5233

I be a him

Pat W