Green Sunfish/Warmouth Hybrid
- Thread starter MinnowMagnet
- Start date
MinnowMagnet;4261303; said:
Ah, MUCH better pic.
Sorry, I have not been on here in awhile so I didn't see your update until now.
You'll probably be happy, that after seeing the updated pic, and noticable thin green iridescent mood stripes on the face (akin to a greenie) I could see it being a possible hybrid. And with the additional information you've posted in the thread chances are you're correct.
Here's the problem. Warmouth can also have all of those characteristics. When they change colors due to mood, they can either lose the white, or get it on only one or two sets of fins, or all.
But Warmouth generally do NOT have thin, irregular, iridescent green mood striping on the face.
Their facial striping tends to be wider, duller and straighter. In fact the whole reason for their common name is due to their specific facial pattern when colored up.
And while I'm not definitively going to try and ID most hybrids based on a picture, I'm going to say there's a very good chance on this one.
I would like to see some pics of it really colored up and feeding too.
The strangest sunnie hybrid I've seen in the wild is what appeared to be a longearxgreen sunfish.
It looked HUGE (around 10in - and with the classic round shape longears around here have that appears massive) and the back end looked distinctly longear, but it had a distinctly green sunfish face slapped on and a huge mouth. It was guarding a nest. Looked like someone sewed a green sunfish head onto a huge longear.
Unfortunately I was snorkelling at the time and I don't have an underwater camera. I can only hope that if I go back to that spot with one he's still there.
It looked HUGE (around 10in - and with the classic round shape longears around here have that appears massive) and the back end looked distinctly longear, but it had a distinctly green sunfish face slapped on and a huge mouth. It was guarding a nest. Looked like someone sewed a green sunfish head onto a huge longear.
Unfortunately I was snorkelling at the time and I don't have an underwater camera. I can only hope that if I go back to that spot with one he's still there.
