Bazillions of Bluespotted sunfish

Just how prolific are these little guys supposed to be?
Somehow, I've went from the four bought last August to about a bazillion of 'em!
And, to think that I thought that I'd lost them over last winter!

I've been too busy to check on them this year and have barely even kept the water topped up.
I did notice a few young ones over the summer, but I've been running a net through the weeds over the last few days.
Even though I hardly put a dent in the population, I must have caught a hundred or so of 'em
I guess that you have to be careful what you wish for!

I haven't been hangin' around here much(that busy stuff that I mentioned), but I've found a little more time recently.
So, I'm kinda back and trying to catch up on things here.

I tossed a netfull of 'em in a grubby spare tank and took a few quick photos.
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I caught an adult, as well, but tossed it back into the original 500 gal stock tank.
Most of these little ones, I put into a fully established 100 gal stock tank.
It's in the house and I'll try to follow their progress as they mature.
I'm thinking very seriously about stocking one of my ponds with some of them.
Although the best one, now has some trout living in it.
They showed up this summer when I was filling it with water from my irrigation ditch,
It's kinda cool, but I really didn't want that spring fed pond to be contaminated.
A little late for me to worry about it now, but still...

I'm not really into shipping anything, just yet.
But, if anyone lives in SW Oregon, has room and wants to come get some...?

Scott

That's absolutely awesome scott. Be thankful!

I say thats awesome.

Yeah, it's really pretty cool!
I never did find out what happened to my missing minnows that went in at the same time.
The sunnies must've fattened up for last winter with 'em.

I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to feed all these little monsters. The large trough has been fully established for a longtime and generated enough food, but with so many inside now...
I'll likely have to go out and sweep a net through a couple of ponds and see what I come up with. It's been a while since I've had to worry about picky eaters. I will probably see if I can bump up the tubificid population and other criters in there.

Scott

Looks like my food worry has been taken care of.
I stopped off at one of my ponds, this afternoon, and swept a net through some of the weeds.
Got a lot of daphnea, cyclops and other goodies for them.
I picked out the things that wouldn't be happy at the bottom of the foodchain and tried to keep just the goodies.
The little monsters are chowing like crazy.

Normally, this time of year, these are tough to come by. But, three of the ponds have been really dug out over the last year, or so.
They're normally dry, but the extra 15 to 20 foot depth has enabled them to be year-round producers and the plantlife has come back full swing over the summer.
Now, if I can just keep up with their stomachs!

Scott

wow, that's alot of sunnies. are you farming them?

If their that prolific you can have a fish farm going in no time.

Their are a few fish i'd love to see farmed for nanfa members. mud sunfish, shadow or roanoke bass, crappie, longnose dace, hogsucker, chubsucker, etc.

Edited by FirstChAoS, 08 November 2009 - 10:09 PM.

"wow, that's alot of sunnies."

I think that I just ended up with an unknown subspecies!
E. gloriosus ssp.viagras!

"are you farming them?"
I want to say no, but...uh, apparently I am.
They didn't bother to tell me, ask, or anything.

I've always been very successful with the beniegn neglect thing!
I set things up the very best that I can and leave them the heck alone.
Translation: I get busy and forget that I even have 'em!

Scott

Have had the same experience with some sunnies I got years ago. Couldn't get them to breed indoors but they produced small batches in a tub pond outdoors. A few were placed into my big pond and have since become quite numerous. Been meaning to catch them all out(pond) and get rid of them(I am actually a bit worried about them being a poss. invasive)...but haven't gotten around to it. I have no idea how many are in the pond but with some fishing I managed to collect and remove about 1 dozen adults(mostly males, but a few big females were able to take down a no. 20 hook). I just haven't had the time/drive to get them all. I suppose if someone ever swings through Central Cal and would be willing to pick them up or otherwise send along a box with everything needed(just drop fish in and ship).

Edited by critterguy, 11 November 2009 - 05:35 AM.

Wow, they are VERY proflific, what are you going to do with all those bluespotted sunfish? Where did the parent fish come from?

Funny thing is that they all(newly hatched fry) tend to die indoors IME(even though the adults will breed readily indoors). Must be offering the wrong foods...they are tiny and slow!(sorta like how I'd imagine seahorses to be).

But once they get to the size where they can hunt BBs, Daphnia, blackworms etc. raising them is straightforward. The only problem I had was aggression(big ones sometimes picked on the little ones). But with them crowded like that I doubt that will be an issue.

These guys are seriously some of the toughest fish I have raised...they sure don't look it but I've pulled them out of nearly black muck the next day after draining a pond and they survive when placed into clean water. Lots of aquarium books suggest they die if you look at them the wrong way.

Edited by critterguy, 11 November 2009 - 09:48 PM.

The original four came from Sachs and I'm still thinking about what do with so many of 'em.
I might have to get a few more large troughs or, perhaps, dump a portion of them into one of my cowponds. The one that I'd really like to use ended up with trout getting washed in over the summer. The irrigation ditch was channeled into it at one point and I ended up with fish.
Decisions...decisions...!

I thought that they'd be more fragile than they are.
They're really tough little guys.
I kept hearing the same said about Black bandeds, but mine were very easy keepers.
Having to provide live food all the time was a pain, but they were worth it.
They lived for years and did nest several times, but I never got any fry. They were kept inside and the other fish likely didn't help either.
I really need to replace them sometime. I'll probably try the same thing and get another large, established trough going to up the population. I, actually, like them more than the Bluespots.
Scott

Congratulations on the successful spawn with the bluespotted sunfish, they make excelent aquarium fish or fish for closed system garden ponds. My sugestion is to learn how to ship them and send some of the extras to some others on this forum. One thing to keep in mind is you probably should not put them into a pond where they have any chance to escape into a drainage ditch or some other natural system, it sounds like some of your ponds do have a conection to other waters since you did mention that you had trout come in from elsewhere. This is especially true if they are not native to the area you live in. Don't take this the wrong way, I just don't want someone on here to accidentally introduce something into an area where it is not native, fish have an incredible ability to get into new waters durring periods of high water.

Scott,

I'd like to congratulate you as well on your successful spawn/spawns. That's a great accomplishment! I'd also like to reiterate what Brian said about not stocking fish in ponds that could possibly allow them to escape into the natural environment. Invasive species are a big problem in this country, and any species can be invasive. When a species enters an environment where it is not naturally found, it may out-compete native species for food, spawning habitat, and other resources. And because the species was not originally found in that environment, natural limiting factors like disease and natural predators may not be found there. This can cause the invasive species' population to explode. You can see how well your fish did in an artificial pond with no predators! I'm saying this not to chastise you, but to educate you. Fish keepers, as well as others in the pet industry, are coming under increased scrutiny these days. We all have to watch each other's back! So keep up the good work breeding the fish, and please see that they don't get into your waterways!

Brian

Thank you, both, for the congratulations!
They're still chowing like little monsters. I've been stopping off and netting food, daily, on my way in from out back. As I see them of all different sizes, there doesn't seem to be as much issue with cannabalism as I worried about. They seem to all be, more or less, getting along and even schooling a bit.
Some of the larger ones are defending areas, but otherwise all is well.

I'm as paranoid as most of the rest of you about invasive species and have always been beyond catious about anything getting loose. I've seen, not only the issues involve Stateside, but, been many places around the world where the natives have been devastated!
Again, I intend to be very carefull, but...
Considering the amount of sanctioned game fish introductions over the years, it'll take a lot to convince me that these little guys could ever impact anything around here. The non native bass, crappie, various sunfish, etc, etc and etc would wipe 'em out before they could crap, let alone spawn!

The trout entered through the top of the irrigation ditch after I rerouted it this summer. A not very friendly neighbor tampered with the gate and ran half the creek down our ditch. I've since changed it back to normal and he's been warned, by the Watermaster about the fines involved if it happens again.
If I do decide to naturalize them into somewhere, I'll have to dig out something else and be very aware of any run off. I do have other ponds that don't really run anywhere, but I had prefered this ones location. Or, I could always dig out an area on higher ground and just use a liner or something...
But, as that's for the future, I'll likely just get a few more large troughs to expand things. The cows might just have to get used to sharing a few of theirs, as well.

Scott

An interesting and odd new note...
I just happened to stop by the breeding tank, a moment ago, and found one of the adult males floating.
This is the first I've seen of them since they went in, other than the female that I ended up netting the other day.
Not sure what's up, but I have an idea or two.
Even though there should be enough surface area and plant life, the oxygen levels might have dropped.
I've been scooping out a lot of fallen leaves, but still have a ways to go.
The massive infusion of decaying leaves could've dropped the saturated oxygen or, at least, changed the water chemisty.
It's been building up ice also, over night, and that could be an issue with a larger population of them this year.
Although most of the new guys are still very small(an optimistic 1.5 inches at the largest), I'm concerned that it's a factor.
The male had doubled in size and was gorgeous, but I would think that he still had a year, or two, to go.
I don't actually remember what sort of lifespan they have and haven't looked it up yet.
But, anyway, that's the way things go!
I guess...
At least they've been prolific!

Scott

In my experience I have had bluespotted sunfish survive for 3-4 years in captivity. I would guess that you are correct about the oxygen level dropping because of the leaf decay. I have a lot of small rubber lined ponds and I drain them out in fall an clean out a lot of the leaves and other debris so they are rather clean for the winter. This seems to prevent loss of fish under the ice, although I do bring the majority of my fish in over winter even though it is probably not necesary.

You could probably feed those little guys some frozen blood worms if your tired of catching food for them every day.

Sweet!
If you ever feel motivated to share the wealth, I am looking to get some of these guys and would be happy to trade some red bellied dace or some other fish or plants? -Or pay the shipping. I do live in VT so it would not be a pick up situation.
BTW how does one empty leaves and such out of a container pond without taking the fish out? I ask because tomorrow I am digging a pond.
Thanks!

Edited by Elijah, 02 December 2009 - 11:34 PM.