Redear very easy in tanks. In ponds they eat feed better than most people give them credit, for but they do not feed at surface very well which I think is common knowledge. They do get big easy but crowd that bends my ear is not as enthusiastic about eating them as they are Bluegill or the crappies.
All the crosses above where from when we doing snail control experiments and trying to make tetraploids. Students, some high school, did a lot to the hybridization and pressure shocking as pretty low tech. The hard part was keeping the little ones from drying out in pretty dishes until old enough to feed plankton or stock into ponds. Some of the hybrids also done as part of a hatchery class so I just watched to make so no one got hurt operating jack ingested spoo.
