Dollar x Longear ?

The longears occuring in the waters of the state of Missouri are quite variable. The animals of central Missouri are of the Missouri River drainage (1), have a more rounded profile with an orange stripe down the center of the nape. Another form (2) occurs in the Mississippi embayment, tends to be heavier for a given length and is lacking in color. The form (3) you are likely familiar with is highly variable and the one I have least experience with. Form 3 looks to me like a little redbreast sunfish might be infused, at least those from the North Fork White River Drainage. Stockings of redbreast sunfish exceeding 40,000 fish were made in Arkansas back in the 1960's, in the same drainages.

I have bred all three (at same time) and they are different in respect to early life stages as well. We have settled on using the Mississippi Embayment form 2 for research purposes since it adapts well to our lab conditions and appears to reach the largest average (possibly maximum) size.

The creek Ive been going to drains into the James River....could Redbreasts have migrated from the North Fork through Tablerock into this creek? The biggest longear Ive seen in the creek is about 5 inches long, wouldnt a Redbreast hybrid be bigger (the creek supports 12 inch smallmouths and 8 inch creek chubs)? They definately have longear in them (cold creek water and the shape of their gill), next month Ill go and see if I can get any decent pictures to post. Thanks for the info. that would definately save me some money and trouble if I could just dipnet a Redbreast hybrid!

I do not have proof of redbreast hybrids, just a hypothesis that I am not well suited to test. If I am correct, then hybrids that are of the type you are interested in existed back in the 1960's and 1970's. The fish now are going to be mostly longear with a little redbreast in their ancestry. We are growing some longear x redbreast hybrids now, in part to see what they will look like.

Here is a photo of starting from the top a male western dollar from southeast Mo, F1 longear X western dollar, and a male Mississippi Embayment longear from southeast Mo. The hybrid is from the brood discussed earlier the brood now range from 2-5in and display sexual dimophism comparable and intermediate to that of parental species. Eggs of longear sunfish have been fertilized using milt from one of the male hybrids, eggs did develop and hatch with now signs of cretenism or deformities.

 Hybrid pure comparison.JPG   96.44KB   4 downloads

Longear x dollar looks like you've re-invented L.peltastes.

All three are stunning, but my favorite picture in the thread is of the F1 male and female crosses... the best looking fish I have seen (too bad it is a cross..)

Its fish like these that people who keep cichlids really need to see and appreciate to see that you don't need a peacock cichlid to have color.

Longear x dollar looks like you've re-invented L.peltastes.

About three years ago we crossed a female pumpkiseed with a male longear which looked more like northern longear than the longear x dollar of our most recent efforts. Biggest difference was ear tabs too big on males and ear tab coloration not defined like on northern longear.

We can make a much better approximation of L. peltastes by crossing western / eastern dollar with pumpkinseed. The latter should give the red opercular tab margin while former should give an opercular tab margin with strong color contrast like with northern longear. Next time basssmaster catches either a pumpkinseed or dollar female banging out some eggs will give the cross a go.

I wonder if northern longear actually do have a little pumkinseed (proto-pumpkinseed) in their background? Seems plausible owing to present range and likely environmental/climates changes that likely imposed / enable range changes in past.

The males of the F1 cross have been proved tp be fertile as milt from the cross was used to fertilize longear and greensunfish eggs. Longear eggs from the same female were fertilized by pure longear as a control with no obvious defference in hatch percentage. Females from the brood are gravid with near fully developed eggs. Attempts to create an f2 hybrid will be made.

Here is a photo of starting from the top a male western dollar from southeast Mo, F1 longear X western dollar, and a male Mississippi Embayment longear from southeast Mo. The hybrid is from the brood discussed earlier the brood now range from 2-5in and display sexual dimophism comparable and intermediate to that of parental species. Eggs of longear sunfish have been fertilized using milt from one of the male hybrids, eggs did develop and hatch with now signs of cretenism or deformities.

 Hybrid pure comparison.JPG   96.44KB   4 downloads

Great pics thanks. Had no idea dollars could spawn with long ears. I have only seen cichlid hybrids around here and with the green and spotted suns have never seen a hybrid.