Went fishing to take stock of the baby population (good time of year to find sunny babies) and found some nice little bluegills. Decided to take one home, grow him up, and try to add him to my sunny tank once he got some size to him. Thing is, I'm starting to wonder if this guy is full bluegill. When I found him, he looked just like a baby bluegill- bright blue/purple color and everything. The color's faded since I've had him, though.
The first picture is my little baby. Sure looks like longear gill markings.
The second picture is a different fish, but that's what color he was when caught. I got a half-dozen babies, and all of them had about the same level of blue/purple, though a couple were a bit darker.
Does he look like a hybrid? I've found bluegill/longear hybrids in that bit of river before, but they're bigger than this when I get them. I've never seen (or, actually, never recognized) one this small. He started out looking just like a bluegill and faded into longear-like coloration, and now that he's in my tank and semi-calm (though he's being hassled by a leaf-fish) he's lost the stripes and gone completely to longear colors- albeit dull longear colors.
Edited by Betta132, 08 November 2015 - 08:38 PM.