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Black banded sunfish behavior in the wild?


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#1 mikez

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Posted 16 September 2016 - 12:29 PM

Does this look like normal behavior? Do they stray this far from cover in the wild?

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Mike Zaborowski
I don't know, maybe it was the roses.

#2 Dustin

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Posted 16 September 2016 - 01:09 PM

I see them swimming in and out of loosely aggregated plants often.  They are not as bound to tight cover as the other two Enneacanthus.  I can't say I have ever seen them out in the open like that though.


Dustin Smith
At the convergence of the Broad, Saluda and Congaree
Lexington, SC


#3 centrarchid

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Posted 16 September 2016 - 03:21 PM

Is predator density low where photo taken?  I have seen some weird things in stripper pit lacking larger fish or lacking fish entirely.  For starters, benthic insects like odonates and mole salamander larvae swimming / suspended in water column that is 15 feet deep.

 

If forage density much higher away from plants then they may also come out for that.


Find ways for people not already interested in natives to value them.

#4 mikez

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Posted 16 September 2016 - 03:50 PM

Full disclosure it's being represented as a "school" on social media. I suspect they were just dumped out of a bucket.
The guy posted several pics including a bbsf on a hook.
He's on a quest to hook every sunfish species in the country.
Pics came from NJ .
Mike Zaborowski
I don't know, maybe it was the roses.

#5 loopsnj64

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Posted 16 September 2016 - 06:40 PM

Sure doesn't look normal...
When I catch them, they were never outside of the dense weeds by the shore, but to be fair, Lake Horicon has both Pike and Pirate Perch, which would be pretty significant predators

I have a permit and I'm currently studying their behavior (In my 30 Gallon tank)... I'll post my findings once the permit expires (The end of this month)


"All good things must come to an end, but bad things think thats rather dull, so they stick around long after their natural end has come"

-From an art book I read


#6 mikez

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Posted 17 September 2016 - 05:45 PM

I have kept them captive over many years and raised many generations but have never met them n the wild.

My tanks are to small to tell. Sure they come into the open areas but nothing as wide open or lacking structure.
I also have a problem thinking of them going in schools.
Mike Zaborowski
I don't know, maybe it was the roses.

#7 gerald

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Posted 18 September 2016 - 02:03 PM

I think Centrarchid might be onto something with his foraging theory.  Possibly there's a bloom of open-water copepods or cladocerans they're coming out to gorge on, in a pond with relatively few open-water predators.   Also, if the photographer was snorkeling, most fish are much less frightened of a large mammal laying face down in the water (which usually means a source of yummy maggots) than one standing up with a net.


Gerald Pottern
-----------------------
Hangin' on the Neuse
"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages" - M.Sandel


#8 mattknepley

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Posted 19 September 2016 - 04:40 AM

"Also, if the photographer was snorkeling, most fish are much less frightened of a large mammal laying face down in the water (which usually means a source of yummy maggots) than one standing up with a net."

And thus is born NANFA Snorkel Team's latest high-tech fish-attracting gear, the Maggot Suit! :)
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."




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