Possible sunfish? ID please

[Moois232]

I keep a female green myself, currently in a 30L (36x12x16) with 3 creek chubs that are bigger than her, she'll soon be upgraded to a tank that's 125-240 gallons. She's about 4" now hopefully going to get 6-8", unstunted males can get 6-12" but sadly Southwest PA has a lot if stunted sunfish populations. Males are much, much more aggressive and can be terrors to the point of not tolerating tankmates whereas females are still aggressive, but will almost always live fine with tankmates.

How do you tell the difference between male and female? I have a pond on my farm with a breeding stock of bluegill and bass and can tell the difference between male and female bluegill. Is it similar? I'm not sure if I said the fish is about 5-6". Would that be a large enough size to tell?


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Moois232]

By the way how do you think fish like those (sunfish) make their ways into systems like that? Besides a few pools the water is very shallow and narrow. At one point I put a minnow trap in the pool and caught around 6-7 dozen creek chub and it amazed me the numbers in such a small pool.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[divemaster99]

How do you tell the difference between male and female? I have a pond on my farm with a breeding stock of bluegill and bass and can tell the difference between male and female bluegill. Is it similar? I'm not sure if I said the fish is about 5-6". Would that be a large enough size to tell?


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

Its probably a male if it's already 6". Males are darker, have more vivid bars on their body, get more orange on the tips of their anal and caudal fins, and are beefier.

 

[divemaster99]

By the way how do you think fish like those (sunfish) make their ways into systems like that? Besides a few pools the water is very shallow and narrow. At one point I put a minnow trap in the pool and caught around 6-7 dozen creek chub and it amazed me the numbers in such a small pool.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

Many species and populations of sunfish live primarily in creeks, my favorite fishing spot for sunnies at my local lake is actually the small creek that goes between the two lakes.

 

[PUHUCBLMX2]

The environment you described sounds pure green sunfish. They are masters at A) recolonizing after drought and B) remaining the last man standing. I have seen a few creeks on the west coast of the USA that have zero flow in the summer months, only a few intermittent pools, none deeper than 60cm. However, they almost all have gambusia living them and at least one resident Green sunfish that I assume feeds mostly on gambusia and insect larvae.

They are strong survivors, however I am told they are poor competitors are can actually be "pushed out" of less harsh environments like lakes and ponds by more prolific relatives like blue gill. Like all sunfish hybrids are common.

Cool fish, he will eat from your fingers in a week.

 

[Moois232]

Thanks for all the answers everyone. I'm gonna try to post the pics again.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[divemaster99]

The environment you described sounds pure green sunfish. They are masters at A) recolonizing after drought and B) remaining the last man standing. I have seen a few creeks on the west coast of the USA that have zero flow in the summer months, only a few intermittent pools, none deeper than 60cm. However, they almost all have gambusia living them and at least one resident Green sunfish that I assume feeds mostly on gambusia and insect larvae.

They are strong survivors, however I am told they are poor competitors are can actually be "pushed out" of less harsh environments like lakes and ponds by more prolific relatives like blue gill. Like all sunfish hybrids are common.

Cool fish, he will eat from your fingers in a week.

I agree, after the apocalypse there's cockroaches, Gambusia, and Green Sunfish. However they're definitively nit out competed, at least not healthy populations die to their large size and mouths, or overstocked populations because if sheer number.

 

[divemaster99]

Thanks for all the answers everyone. I'm gonna try to post the pics again.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

Try posting from your computer, I've heard that works better than phones with this problem.

 

[MN_Rebel]

The environment you described sounds pure green sunfish. They are masters at A) recolonizing after drought and B) remaining the last man standing. I have seen a few creeks on the west coast of the USA that have zero flow in the summer months, only a few intermittent pools, none deeper than 60cm. However, they almost all have gambusia living them and at least one resident Green sunfish that I assume feeds mostly on gambusia and insect larvae.

They are strong survivors, however I am told they are poor competitors are can actually be "pushed out" of less harsh environments like lakes and ponds by more prolific relatives like blue gill. Like all sunfish hybrids are common.

Cool fish, he will eat from your fingers in a week.

The green sunfish are not poor competitors. They don't have any problems to over take few trout lakes and many lakes that is less harsh. As long there are some structures for green sunfish, they will be always thriving no matter what kind of environment. Without structures, all fish species suffered.

 

[Etan]

How do I do that? None of the pics will upload. Thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

go to imgur.com, click upload images, or if you are on your phone use the app.

After you select upload images select from device or from computer ,pick your pic and hit upload.

After that you'll see a link. Copy that link and paste it here with

after the link