Hybrid sunfish reproduction

I know that generally speaking hybrids in nature dont reproduce, such as the mule, however when speaking about hybrid sunfish do they reproduce amomg themselves, and do the young revert to one or the other of the parents , or what is the deal with this.

I know that generally speaking hybrids in nature dont reproduce, such as the mule, however when speaking about hybrid sunfish do they reproduce amomg themselves, and do the young revert to one or the other of the parents , or what is the deal with this.

According to the sources I have read the commercially produced green sunfish X bluegill hybrid is not sterile but up to 90 percent males. There are others on the site that can be more specific such as Centrarcid and others.

According to the sources I have read the commercially produced green sunfish X bluegill hybrid is not sterile but up to 90 percent males. There are others on the site that can be more specific such as Centrarcid and others.

Thanks for that reply...Whew!!! I was beginning to think that question was too dumb to warrant a reply . This question really is part of another one i posted regarding, what im sure are hybrid sunfish that were stocked into a private pond and are exploding in size and population, and i really just wondered if those offspring were remaining true genetically to the parents (Hybrids) or could be reverting back to some of the traits of the parents such as in say a bluegillX whatever cross and now are becomeing two separate species again.

Many Lepomis hybrids are fertile and the Hybrids will readily cross back with one of there parental species. The bluegill x green and with most hybrids the F2 generations are highly variable in terms of apperance and size, even between a givin brood. As to reverting back to one of the parent species no they will always be hybrids, but selection towards one of the parental species will probably be determend by envromental factors. Ive also seen ponds stocked with both bluegill and hybrid bluegill where the hybrids will cross back with bluegill and after a few generations its almost impossible to tell the bluegill have any green sunfish within them.

Many Lepomis hybrids are fertile and the Hybrids will readily cross back with one of there parental species. The bluegill x green and with most hybrids the F2 generations are highly variable in terms of apperance and size, even between a givin brood. As to reverting back to one of the parent species no they will always be hybrids, but selection towards one of the parental species will probably be determend by envromental factors. Ive also seen ponds stocked with both bluegill and hybrid bluegill where the hybrids will cross back with bluegill and after a few generations its almost impossible to tell the bluegill have any green sunfish within them.

Thank you for that reply, and im so glad you were able to understand what i wanted to know, even with that rather hard to understand question.

I've been studying up on hybridization in fishes recently, and I've been surprised to learn that even black basses (also in the sunfish family) occasionally backcross and can introgress sometimes. This seems to be most common with smallmouth and spotted bass, or with some of the less common varieties when an allopatric (not sharing the same waterbody/region) species is introduced. But I even found one reference to largemouth and smallmouth bass hybridizing, backcrossing, and introgressing almost to the level of a hybrid swarm, when introduced outside their native range. If anyone knows of other cases where species that are sympatric in their native ranges, and rarely hybridize in their native ranges, but begin to hybridize when introduced sympatrically outside their native range, I would like to know about them.

Micropterus hybridization in the Texas Hill Country is a relatively common occurance. I've heard that the genetic work done on black basses in Barton Creek (Colorado drainage) showed that they crossed between the native Guadalupes, spotteds, and largemouths. From the limited sampling I've done out there, I have noticed this superficially and had to make judgement calls on fish IDs (...this on is largemouthish). The creek is ephemeral, but has spring-fed pools that are perrenial. I think what is driving the hybridization is isolation in the perrenial pools coupled with extended spawning seasons. In other words, when the bass don't have many choices, they make do with what's in the pool. All of those specis occur at least parapatrically in high flows, but are forced into a more sympatric relationship when flows lower or cease. I think this is why Near et al. (2003),in their paper on black basses, placed Guadalupe bass closest to largemouth bass in their phylogeny. I think Guadalupes belong in the smallmouth and spotted bass clade, but past hybridization events coupled with extinction of populations and subsequent expansion of ranges of the historically hybridized Guadalupes has led to the strange molecular relationships we see today.

As far as intorduced hybridizations go, smallmouth bass are the main biological threat to Guadalupe bass. They were stocked in Hill Country streams for decades to create a fishery where there really was already an underappreciated and underpromoted Guadalupe bass fishery. The Smallmouths readily hybridize and often outcompete the Guadalupes. Now, most populations of Guadalupe bass show a high level of introgression with smallmouths. There are a few populations of Guadalupes that are, for the most part, pure, and hopefuly they will stay that way since smallmouth stocking has ceased and there's increased interest in maintaining the natural integrity of the species.

With current work that I know of that's being done, some light may be shed on some of the mysteries about the history of Guadulpe bass in the next few years.

back in the sixty's Arkansas strocked redbreast into the white river drainage, they have intergraded with the central longear native to the drainage. Now there is a hybrid swarm highly variable in apperance. There are also a few rivers through out central missouri where meanmouth bass(Spotted x smallmouth) are not too rare. In a couple river the introduced spotted bass has pushed out the smallmouth through competiton and hybridization.