Does anyone here selectively breed sunfish

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I'm working on growing out several pumkinseed with the aim of doing this. It will be rather lengthy though, as it takes several years for them to reach breedable size. Also, you will need plenty of tanks, and large ones too, as the male gets very agressive during breeding time, and will need to be seperated, and the female will be killed if left in the tank to long after breeding. You can also expect alot of fry, I don't think they will be hard to raise, but you will need to use small live foods at first, such as brine shrimp naupli, cyclops, daphnia and the like. You can also hybridize different centrarchid species together, like a bluegill and pumpkinseed together. But, that is a matter for personal taste, as some people are appaled at hybrids.
 
If something goes wrong with my cichlids I might switch to Sunfish. I know there are some sunfish in the part of the Rio Grande I live on. What species might live in the river. The river is going to get higher than normal this year so I might lose my favorite netting spot. Ive also caught some with plastic bottle traps but they were dead because I didnt check them for a month. But that was during the summer.
 
You should have Redbreast, and Green sunfish in your area. Redbreast are beautifull sunfish.....but get big but have to have very clean water from what Ive read. Ive been wanting to try and crossbreed Green and Redbreast to get the hardiness of the Green with the prettiness of the Redbreast and I even have a plan.....but I feel I would need several more and bigger aquariums and at the moment dont have the space or time to do it in.
 
Pumpkinseed's are such a beautiful fish....I was fishing with my cousin in PA a few years ago and he had reeled a pumpkinseed in on his pole. I was blown away by the colors of this fish and for a few mins i was thinking about bringing him home and putting him in my 180 with a few other cichlids.....but then i realized that I knew nothing about this fish and didnt know how it would do with cichlids???? Could a Pumpkinseed live with a Jaguar and Flowerhorn???
 
i wouldn't do it. My pumpkinseed has been known to terrorize anything he comes accross. Including some White catfish almost twice his size, and a much, much bigger mouth. Also, the temperature differences, the pumpinseed might not do well at tropical temperatures.
 
No....definately not, Pumpkinseeds need cool water; the temp difference would kill them. A big Green Sunfish might be able to live with them if there were enough space and hiding spots until the Sunfish could get acclimated.
 
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