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A Lepomis ID Question (It's NOT A Green...)

Started by Guest_fundulus_* , May 07 2012 05:11 PM

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14 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 07 May 2012 - 05:11 PM

This photo showed up on a Facebook thread, with everybody oohing and ahhing about how pretty the fish is, all true. The poster insisted it's a longear; it doesn't look right, although the ear tab is about right. The fish was caught along the Texas coast. Suggestions? (I'm playing coy on my ID...)

Lepomis.jpg 83.08KB 8 downloads

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#2 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 07 May 2012 - 05:28 PM

Yeah that's a longear for now. Once some folks get through the phylogeny, I'm sure it's something else.

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#3 Guest_centrarchid_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 06:54 AM

It does not look like the typical I encountered there as such looks very similar to what is in bootheel of Missouri and balance of embayment into Lousiana and east Texas. Ear tab a bit long and straight. What it does look a lot like is some hand crossed longear x redbreated sunfish. They (hybrids) have the extended eartab and washed orange look and flanks and ventral region.

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#4 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 07:58 AM

Yeah, I was thinking of redbreasted more than anything else. Hybrid may well be the best explanation.

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#5 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 09:43 AM

It's very colorful. I like it, whatever it is.

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#6 Guest_rjmtx_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 10:08 AM

It looks like a lot of longears I've caught in the Lower Brazos. Here's a net-full. Posted Image

What basin was it in? You don't see many redbreasts outside of the spring systems in the Hill Country. I haven't caught many at all in the coastal areas of TX. I'd say longear.

Edited by rjmtx, 08 May 2012 - 10:08 AM.

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#7 Guest_rjmtx_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 10:10 AM

Here's one from the Central Brazos with the narrow ear.
Posted Image

Edited by rjmtx, 08 May 2012 - 10:10 AM.

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#8 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 10:22 AM

How funny it is that Bruce is saying "hybrid" and I am not

Thanks for posting those Robby, it looks like pictures of longear I'd viewed before from down there. I really don't think it's a hybrid. Usually megalotis hybrids have interrupted opercular white margins (although admittedly Centrarchid has more robust experience with them than me and in a controlled environment).

Todd

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#9 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 10:36 AM

I'll take everyone's word that it looks like longears in TX/LA, since I've never seen them there. It looks very different from longears in the middle Tennessee drainage, especially with no sparkly blue markings.

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#10 Guest_rjmtx_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 10:46 AM

Do you know what basin it was caught in? I'm just curious.

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#11 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 08 May 2012 - 10:55 AM

No, I don't know exactly, just east Texas.

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#12 Guest_centrarchid_*

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Posted 09 May 2012 - 10:44 AM

It does not look like the typical I encountered there as such looks very similar to what is in bootheel of Missouri and balance of embayment into Lousiana and east Texas. Ear tab a bit long and straight. What it does look a lot like is some hand crossed longear x redbreated sunfish. They (hybrids) have the extended eartab and washed orange look and flanks and ventral region.

I change my position, it could very well be an exceptional speciman of that longear down there. The Missouri bootheel version which I think ultimately will be the same simply does not have the well developed white trim on the ear tab. The hybrids are hard to figure without pures next to them for comparison.

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#13 Guest_rjmtx_*

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Posted 12 May 2012 - 03:35 PM

Here's one more that from the looks of it could be the original's brother. Caught on a tributary of the Brazos near Waco
Posted Image

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#14 Guest_CATfishTONY_*

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Posted 13 May 2012 - 07:42 AM

thats a longear.
lepomis megalotis. i use to live in texas for 10 years and this fish looks typical for that area to me.
the color and size LM are nothing like LONGEARS in the ohio valley.

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#15 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 13 May 2012 - 09:17 AM

I agree looks like the Mississippi flood plain longears and it appears that form goes pretty far west on the southern end of their range through much of Texas. They also can be found as far north as western TN, KY, and southern IL. Sure would be nice to see a good distribution map with all the different forms of longears mapped out together. I have a rough idea in my head and i'm sure there are areas of transition. I thin there are atleast 5 or 6 forms.