ID this fish !

[MV2006]

Well a friend went fishing in a local dallas area lake and caught a good amount of fish so he let me keep one that was too small .I put it in a tank I just happened to have running but with no fish in it .Before any one jumps the gun yes I know the tank its in is too small.But I have no idea what it is the closest thing i could find was a texas sunfish but im pretty sure thats not what it is .What ever it is it sure active .I threw in some tubiflex cubes for the fellow and i don think he has eaten them yet .Any clue as to what the best source of nutrion should be .Or what this guy is ?Best I can tell is he is about 5 inches long.
I left one of the pics without resizing so you guys can get a good look .

 

[guppy]

Easy one (I think), that looks like a green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), very common in Texas, They can reach 12" but stunt if overpopulated so they seldom get bigger than 6" unless the lake has a lot of bass to thin the population. The Texas record is 1.22 lbs.
Treat like other sunfish, they adapt well to tanks but that one is max size for the tank it is in. They love worms and crickets.
Here is a picture by T. Ostergaard for comparison.

 

[rhinod56]

if just caught in the wild, I'd start with live foods, and gradually work to frozen, and flake...

as for id, some sort of sunfish, but thats as good as I can suggest...

 

[fisher12889]

Definately a green sunfish. They will eat almost any type of live food, but its alittle tougher to get them to except dry foods. They are very neat fish, and I have kept them myself. As a sidenote, its usually not a good idea to keep a fish unless you know what species it is, because it could be one that there is a size limit on, or one that cant be kept at all, etc.

 

[MV2006]

YUP ,we have a winner thats it thanks guppy .I was close I would have had it if I would have found this awesome pic you posted.I an sure you are correct.The fish in my tank is identical.It has those distinctive blue sort of iridescent markings around the eye area.And definetly has those yellow fins on the bottom, wich you can miss if you dont pay attention.All in all it a pretty cool fish I think I will keep it ,in a bigger tank of course.This gets me thinking about keeping some other kind of native species if I can find some other interesting native fish.Any one have any suggestions on some texas native fish?Living close to lakes accquiring new fish would be free and fun .But most of all FREE. I didnt ask the guy that caught this fish but I think he was netted ,I dont think he was hooked .The fish didnt seem too stressed and there was no visible damage from a hook .Any other fish that i personally acquire though I will make sure I catch thru a net.

Thank every one for helping. This forum rocks.

Easy one (I think), that looks like a green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), very common in Texas, They can reach 12" but stunt if overpopulated so they seldom get bigger than 6" unless the lake has a lot of bass to thin the population. The Texas record is 1.22 lbs.
Treat like other sunfish, they adapt well to tanks but that one is max size for the tank it is in. They love worms and crickets.
Here is a picture by T. Ostergaard for comparison.

 

[MV2006]

I totally agree if this would have been a tankbuster it would have gone back in the lake .If I wouldnt have kept this guy he probly would have been tossed out as he was already in a bucket at a friends house .And he doesnt have any aquariums.Or did I totally miss the ball and you were talking about game regulations on size ? I.E. If under 6" throw back in the lake or something like that?

Definately a green sunfish. They will eat almost any type of live food, but its alittle tougher to get them to except dry foods. They are very neat fish, and I have kept them myself. As a sidenote, its usually not a good idea to keep a fish unless you know what species it is, because it could be one that there is a size limit on, or one that cant be kept at all, etc.

 

[MV2006]

Looking around I kind of like this other native fish , it a pumkinseed .

 

[Roberto C. Wells]

I have a pumpkinseed that chassis my red devil all over the tank.

 

[MV2006]

Hmmm . I pulled that image from google as a native fish I just realized I didnt check to see if it was a fish native to texas also . But they are cool looking. I just found this one on texas fishery website,and it is a texas native.Its a long ear sunfish.I think ill try and pull one out of the lake.

I have a pumpkinseed that chassis my red devil all over the tank.

 

[guppy]

I totally agree if this would have been a tankbuster it would have gone back in the lake .If I wouldnt have kept this guy he probly would have been tossed out as he was already in a bucket at a friends house .And he doesnt have any aquariums.Or did I totally miss the ball and you were talking about game regulations on size ? I.E. If under 6" throw back in the lake or something like that?

No worries on that, this is a quote I cut and pasted from Texas F+W,

Sunfish: various species including bluegill, redear, green, warmouth and longear No limit No minimum

Because they stunt when overpopulated it is best to return large ones and remove the little ones, In Kansas we would use small ones for fertilizer.

They, like most sunnies are very hardy, I have had fresh caught sunnies actually eat while still in the catch bucket.