19 replies to this topic

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

After about a little over a month, this little punky is really starting to get his colors. I wonder how vibrant he'll be once grown?

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•  1-BABY-PUMPKINSEED-#1.jpg   158.11KB   6 downloads

[centrarchid]

If a dude, you can push coloration by getting it into spawning mode.  Presently I can not tell if it male or female.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

I think that it's a male, but not 100% sure. Not quite as easy to tell as a guppy....  How do you get them into spawning mode? Some fish need the water made colder.

 

Chris M.

[itsme]

Looks like a Longear to me,  Many of the strains from headwaters in Ohio have the red mark on the ear lobe.  Pumpkinseeds are much less common in central Ohio than are Longears.  There are Pumpkinseeds in the reservoirs and in the lower Scioto at Columbus... also a reservoir.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

It might be, but the longear species isn't listed in the Olentangy species diversity list where as the punky is. However, it's not outside of the realm of possibility.

[Matt DeLaVega]

I agree with Mark. I almost never find Pseed in Ohio other than in reservoirs. Maybe this is L. peltastes or an intergrade/hybrid of peltastes and megalotis. Peltastes often has red on flap. Look into it Chris. I believe you are in the intergrade zone of a fairly recently split species. Could be more of this or more of that? Or one or the other.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Thanks for the information. I'll look a bit deeper into it and see if I can turn up any details about species splits in this river.

Thanks

Chris M.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

I do now believe that you're both correct that it's a longear. It's growing fast and it's opercle is elongating fast now that it's taking in a steady diet of shiner fry daily along with Mysis shrimp and blood worms. I think that this is a Northern longear as it has the distinct red along the rear edge of the opercle.

 

Chris M.

[Matt DeLaVega]

So the split I was speaking of- What was once L. megalotis peltastes is now considered L. peltastes. Elevated to full species rather than subspecies. Common name is now just northern sunfish, rather than northern longear sunfish.

[JasonL]

Northerns usually don't get as big as Pumpkinseeds. He may do ok with your micros for longer than a Pumpkinseed would.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

From what I read, there was two species, Lepomis Megaglotis peltastes, or Northern Longear and then there's Lepomis megalotis megalotis,  which is the Central longear. Am I correct on this? Have these two subspecies now been merged into one?

Thanks

 

Chris

[Michael Wolfe]

You dont use all three names any more. These are no longer subspecies but are now considered full species. So you remove that middle megalotis

[JasonL]

To further muddy the waters you can find "Mississippi Embayment" Longears in oxbow lakes here in western KY that look different from the classic Central Longears you find in the creeks. Though I think they are both considered L. megalotis for now at least.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

So they're all now simply L. megalotis peltastes and that the megalotis megalotis subspecies is no longer a variant. All combined into one species now?

Please forgive my ignorance. I'm not super sharp on subspecies and so forth.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[JasonL]

Chris, it's L. peltastes (Northern sunfish), L. megalotis (Central longear) , L. marginatus (Dollar sunfish) etc. for all these similar looking Lepomis species. They are considered close relatives but different species and not subspecies any longer.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Ah, I see now and thank you. Instead of all being a subspecies, they've all become their own separate species. Sometimes things need to be beaten into my head for me to understand...

 

Thank you

Chris

[Matt DeLaVega]

To follow up whether you need it or not Chris. Lepomis= genus   megalotis=species  peltastes= subspecies  Now that the northern longear sunfish is it's own species, called the northern sunfish, it is now Lepomis peltastes. The remainder remain Lepomis megalotis. I don't know that I have added any clarity there, but it will come with time. It is not easy to follow this rapidly changing world of fish names.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Two years later.... This is my Long ear sunfish, Lepomis peltastes. A very pretty sunfish with many splashes of blue colors on his body plus black pectoral fins. He was 1/4" long when caught. Now 3". An absolutely gorgeous fish, but aggressive. Like me, alone and without a mate. He fans the substrate, but in futility.... So he chases my spotfin shiners and bluntnose minnows.

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[Sean Reilly]

Absolutely GORGEOUS Blue Lines!!.....

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Absolutely GORGEOUS Blue Lines!!.....

Thank you. He's even more pretty in person. The red in his gill plates and fins is even more pronounced and colorful. For a long time I thought this was going to be a female while he was still little, but within the past 3 months he's really developed his coloration. Beautiful chains down his sides and in sunlight varies between electric blue and almost a gas flame blue. The coloration rivals any tropical fish!