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Sunfish ID

Started by Guest_FirstChAoS_* , Jul 15 2012 01:56 AM

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6 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

Guests

Posted 15 July 2012 - 01:56 AM

Green! Hybrid! Ok now that is out of the way I need a sunfish IDed. I got it in a slow muddy stream in Hollis NH (merrimack drainage). Along with several pumpkinseeds.

The first pic is not good as a leaf obscures it, it is just above the pumpkinseed.

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The second pic is better but has some glare making it difficult to see, The thing about it that confounds me is how its body is dark and featureless giving me no real ID marks to go on.

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II know it is not a bass, and doubt it is a rock bass or crappie. That leaves bluegill, pumpkinseed, red breast, and banded as choices.

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#2 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 15 July 2012 - 06:16 AM

the overall geschtalt makes me want to say Enneacanthus... and my Petersons, says they range all the way to southern NH... so I am going to say Enneacanthus obesus banded sunfish... I dont know exactly what is is about the fish... but I am just going to through that out there as another option

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#3 Guest_itsme_*

Guests

Posted 15 July 2012 - 08:35 AM

Yeah, must be Enneacanthus. Don't know if both obesus and gloriosus are in that area. Large head and mouth look like obesus. Need to see it in a tank. Obesus usually has irridescent blue/green lines on the head, whereas gloriosus has spots. The two can be very similar and difficult to separate. This looks like a mature specimen and that should help. Excellent aquarium fish.

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#4 Guest_Dustin_*

Guests

Posted 15 July 2012 - 10:29 AM

Agree it is definitely an enneacanthus and obesus would be the one in range even though it is not showing any markings.

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#5 Guest_Kanus_*

Guests

Posted 15 July 2012 - 12:05 PM

Yup that's an E. obesus. I'm actually on my way out of the house to go collect some myself.

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#6 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

Guests

Posted 18 July 2012 - 12:09 AM

Excellent aquarium fish.

In my experience they are very infection prone (they and golden shiner are the two fish I had major disease issues with when I tried to keep them). With the bandeds however it may be due to stress from agressive tank mates. My first one I kept with a dollar sunfish, my second ones I kept with banded killifish for a banded theme tank and those killies were nasty.

A couple questions

Is lacking bands unusual or is this part of the normal color variation of the species?

What tipped you off that it is an ennecanthus? I am fairly new to them and do not know the visual cues to ID the genus.

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#7 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 18 July 2012 - 10:09 AM

Round body shape, lack of any northeastern Lepomis pattern, red eye, stumpy snout, tail rounded (not concave).
They can turn the banding pattern on & off according to mood, but yes it's odd to see one so totally non-banded.

When collecting in very soft water, add 1/2 teasp NaCl salt per gal in the collecting bucket (before you start collecting) to ease the osmotic stress and prevent bacterial and fungal infections from setting in. Collecting stress causes fish to lose their body salts really fast and that's what makes them infection-prone.