What Species is this?

[CoachBob 0]

 

A new Louisiana urban pond, not stocked and plenty of these sunfish via natural avenues.

Can't put a name to it.

Any ideas?

[sniksoh 0]

thats a green sunfish aka a rock bass

[yeoldkiller 0]

i thought that was just a panfish mixed with a bluegill and the rock bass i catch are dark green with red eyes

[mswaterfowler 0]

I caught one like that at my local pond and i think they are warmouths. Way off proportion!

[shezli 0]

Crazy, I haven't seen any of these before. Does look like a bluegill/sunfish cross!

Doesn't look like a rock bass to me though. (although there are lots of names for fish and sometimes they cross over different species)

S

[mswaterfowler 0]

I looked it up on google and it is a warmouth.

[rhinorods69 0]

i want to say it a cross bread between a black eared sun fish and a war mouth michigan has a fish like this i wonder were they got there stock at

 

check it out here and here

 

 

http://www.wiscfish.org/fishid/wFrmFishDet...ae)&GID=161

 

http://www.wiscfish.org/fishid/frames.aspx

 

 

 

[CoachBob 0]

After some consideration (and searching the web sites of every southern wildlife department), I think it probably IS a goggle eye (warmouth)-- only a juvenille.

Mature goggle eye down here have much darker colors but do appear to have the same turquoise vein-like markings and green to yellow coloration.

The water in which it grew is always a very light olive, thus possibly contributing to the overall lighter coloration of the fish.

Thanks for your input.

 

Coachbob

 

[deeky 0]

I would have to go with the warmouth. The giveaway is the proportionally large mouth for a sunfish. All others have a much smaller mouth. Could be some odd hybrid, but there's warmouth in there. It's also too elongated to be bluegill, green sunfish, or rockbass. THey are a much shorter body/taller profile.

 

Deeky

[JSzymczyk 0]

my money says it's a Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) not a Warmouth (Lepomis gulosus), and it doesn't appear to be a Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris)... I doubt very much if it is a hybrid or "cross" between any two species. Natural hybrids do happen, but less often than everyone wants them to.

 

Green Sunfish also have a huge mouth compared to most other sunfish, and we catch many of them with a faded, washed out appearance especially in murky water. Greens also typically have an enlongated body compared to sunfish like bluegills and pumpkinseeds, but similar to warmouths and rockbass. Greens and Warmouths are very closely related- and can look very similar at times.

 

Some folks call a Green Sunfish a Rock bass, and some call a Rock Bass a Goggle-eye, and some call a Goggle-eye a Warmouth.... You can call it anything you like, but in the end I believe it is Lepomis cyanellus.

 

If you get a good fish ID book and check it out, you might be able to get a positive ID based on scale counts, spiny ray counts, and dentition.

[Fred H. 0]

most definetly right .JSzymczyk nailed it. Its a green sunfish. And if the pond has them in abundance that is probably going to be the size they stay.Althought the other specie to be bread to bluegill to create the popular F1 hybrid; by itself the greensunfish will overpopulate and stunt in small ponds and lakes.

[Guest]

I'm thinkin' it's a Green too. It is absolutely not a Rock Bass. Rock Bass are more easily confused with misshapen Smallmouth than any other species.

[St Croix Boy 0]

Definately a Green we have a few here in PA but not a Rockbass

[Fred H. 0]

I caught my first rock bass last month while up in Arkansas. It has many common traits with a warmouth (goggle eye) but easily distinguished by coloration even in the juviniles. The fish pictured here has many common traits to the F1 hybids in my pond even the yellowish caudual fin . If this pond hasn't been stocked with hybrids than it is definitly a green sunfish. I was stumped earlier this spring. I caught a nine inch fish that appeared to be a cross of a bluegill and a crappie.Turned out to be a spiecies called a "flyer". Anyone ever catch these?

[St Croix Boy 0]

A 'FLYER' no cant say i have. i never heard of a Flyer