7 replies to this topic

[Betta132]

What's the best size longear sunfish to catch for a tank? I know small is good, but I need to be able to tell they're longears, and I'd like to be able to tell if they're males or females. Maybe 2"-ish? I'm looking for some nice small flies to use to catch little guys, since those have bright colors. I don't think bait will be an issue... the baby green I'm temporarily housing will attack anything that looks like it fits in his mouth. I plan to just get a colorful fly and maybe stick a bit of table shrimp on for smell, and they should go for that. Or I can use canned corn, the adults will go after corn.

And while we're on this topic, what's the best way to FIND baby sunnies? I know where to get semi-adult ones, but the babies hide a lot. Should I just fish in reeds and see what I get? I can't dipnet them out, they're game fish (I think) and therefore I have to catch them with a hook.

These are Central Texas longears, if that makes any difference. I've never seen one over 6" long.

Edited by Betta132, 17 February 2015 - 03:39 PM.

[Michael Wolfe]

And while we're on this topic, what's the best way to FIND baby sunnies? I know where to get semi-adult ones, but the babies hide a lot. Should I just fish in reeds and see what I get? I can't dipnet them out, they're game fish (I think) and therefore I have to catch them with a hook.

They should be in dense reedy cover and relatively shallow water to avoid bigger fish.

[Betta132]

How old do they have to be to sex them? Also, how can I tell the difference between a female longear and a bluegill, and how old does a longear have to be to get the orange?

[Betta132]

I've seen wild longears about 3" long that are showing some nice coloration, the orange/blue/green mix the males get. Is that a reasonable size? I'd like to make sure I have a nice colorful male, since all my research is saying it's a bad idea to keep 2-5 of them, and I'd prefer to keep this tank on the lighter-stocked side of things. It's a 65g styled after the underhang areas of streams, the types of places sunfish seem to enjoy. I plan to keep one longear sunny, and I'm going to add a decent handful of local shiners. Blacktail shiners, mostly, but I've seen a few without the black tail spot.

[Matt DeLaVega]

You should talk to Brian Zimmerman. He can help you with these questions for sure, and if you wanted, he could ship you some longears. Might even be able to sex them? He is smbass on the forum. He breeds and legally sells native fish. http://forum.nanfa.o...ser/153-smbass/

Or his website https://www.google.c...=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Even if you are adamant about collecting your own, I am sure he would be happy to give you some advice. He is one of the two resident sunfish specialists, the other is Centrarchid http://forum.nanfa.o...78-centrarchid/

Good luck.

[Betta132]

Will do, thanks!

[centrarchid]

I can provide random gibberish on their keep.

[Betta132]

That might be helpful. I think I know at least a decent bit of what I'm doing, but more advice is usually good.