Help Identifing sunfish

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I am a new to this forum and antive fish. My son and I recently collected a few juvinile sunfish for our aquarium. We have had them for about 2 weeks and they are doing well on freeze dried blood worms. I think they are bluegills but would like some help identifing them. They where collected in a small private lake near Lubbock, TX. Also, what tempurate is best for them?

Thanks Don

How long are they?
Looks like a juvenile warmouth to me.

how big is it?

Mouth looks to small to be a Warmouth or green, i think the mouth would go at least to the center of the eye, and no light border on the fin edges, and i do not see the lines comming from the eye, head does not look right to me

it's not a red spot sunnie, no bright cresent under the eye

if it is real small it could be a redear, the 2nd pict kinda looks like there may be a color patch on the ear flap

I do not think its a bluegill, no black spots above and below the tail, and no evident verticle stripes (though the pict is pretty washed out)

It may be a small pumpkin seed,

dredcon or smbass will probably nail it.

Looks to be a Redear. The headshape is dead on.

I have some ideas as to what it may be...possably a pumpkinseed IMO. Juvi. sunfish are very difficult, at least IMO. Where was it collected at? What state are you in? That should help narrow it down a bit.

Looks to be a Redear. The headshape is dead on.

I thought that as well, the pectoral does not seem right though, granted the pectoral is extreamly difficult to see in those pictures. It looks more short and rounded IMO then long and pointed, but if that's the case then pumpkinseed can also be ruled out. I have no idea what it is, though I have a few ideas on what it is not.

Redear for comparison.

I think I will go along with skipjack on this one looks like a small redear sunfish. if you could try to get a picture without a flash (use a lot of lighting around where your taking the picture and no flash from the camera) you'll probably get a little clearer picture and show it's true colors a little better and then I'd be more confident on the id. As far as feeding I would say your doing fine, as they grow though you'll need to switch to something a little larger than bloodworms if they are redears as they get rather large. Temperature wise room temp is fine anything from 65-80 should be suitable, best is probably around 72-75. Oh ya I feel confident in saying they are not bluegill.

Since we're taking guesses on this fish....I'd guess Pumkinseed as well. I base this guess on the dorsal fin coloration as well as the pattern on the body coupled with the general body shape and mouth size. I know it's well out of natural range so this guess is iffy at best. Honestly it's silly to guess at this point with a washed out fish. Natural colors will come through soon giving you and the rest of us a better chance later. I can also say I don't think it's a bluegill.

Looks so much like a warmouth. The main thing is that mouth, kind of small, throws off a warmouth easy ID. Atleast how the picture makes it look.

The spinous dorsal fin "humps" up a bit, doesn't look redear to me. Definatly not a pumpkinseed. Look at the pectoral fin, its short and roundish. Not pumpkinseed, redear, or bluegill like there.

Pumkinseeds, bluegills and warmouth are the sunfish that usually show that rise in the spines of the dorsal fin.

Next the ear, featurless with only a blackish color. The big eye. Big eyes are common on several smaller sunfish, mostly warmouth, bluegills, pumpkinseeds, and redears. But the last three in that list have long pointy pectoral fins. Even young of those species the pecs are showing the length and more pointed than round shape.

Speckly blotchy coloration. Pumpkinseed young, bluegill young, and many other show more of a banded pattern. Warmouth can be banded like when small, but the bands are usually a series of blotches.

Any pictures of this fish not in "action pose"? I suspect how its sitting is distorting what everyone is looking at.

Irate, for once I am not going to say this is a hybrid. It looks like a warmouth to me. Just one with a smaller than normal mouth.

What makes this a warmouth: short pectoral fins, big eye, blotchy color, featurless "ear", no distinguishable fin coloration, mouth in this picture even big, rounded tail. Warmouth are variable, even individuals. A better picture to see its mouth compared to the rest of its features would help. A picture right after it eats a big meal, or better yet during feeding of the meal! In most cases a warmouth will darken up when happy ( or mad). Happy is something going down the gulet.

Even though this a good picture, it is not working really well for ID purposes. I will stick with warmouth until I see a picture that shows the mouth looking even smaller, the pectoral fins pointed, and the dorsal fin spines after the first two looking all about the same length.

OK here is my input. With this photo it is hard to tell. But a blue gill under two inches is basicaly silvery in colloration with no/little barring. Kind of ugly one might say. Sometimes showing a blueish sheen depending on light. I see a complete lateral line there so that is one field mark. Other than that I do not know how big this fish is. I see no ear flap marking so that is indicative of blue gill. A warmouth even at two inches or less is already starting to show its field mark of the bars on the head and the barring pattern on the body. I currently have several warmouth that size I caught in Louisiana just a few days ago and you can tell beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are warmouth. Now the warmouth is much more elongate than a blue gill at this stage of life. (under two inches or two inches or so) this fish seems more compressed with no gill/ear lining and a complete lateral line. So with that said and by the photos I would lean towards blue gill. But without having the fish in hand, for me unless the photo is exceptionally good it is hard to tell. If I had them in hand it would be a no brainer. Hope you come up with a def ID on them. And if they are blue gill IMO I can't see why anyone would want to keep them. To me that is the least desirable sunny as far as markings/beauty/tempermant to keep. But different people have different taste. That is what gives this old world a little more flavor. So good luck in your fish keeping. I have been keeping fish for over forty years and have not past the age of 12 years old yet in fishing mentality. Love it and hope to keep doing it for a long long time. By the way on this photo I see no black markings on the rear of the dorsal which is present on even very young blue gill. So there you go.

I correct myself. Young bluegill are heavily barred. And about the comment on the mouth being small well that mouth looks huge to me. And you can almost pick up the barring on the head that is indicative of warmouth. Young crappie are blue. No dark spot on dorsal that blue gill have. I go with warmouth.

my first thought was crappie... but dont know

my first thought was crappie... but dont know

The anal fin is too short to be a crappie.

We still don't know how big this fish is. It could be a baby. What does a baby orangespotted sunfish look like? I have not seen them under 1.5 inches. He caught it in o-spot territory. Could it be?

I have 4 of them they all look the same except that the black on the gills is darker on this one. there is no red on the gill that I can see. they do have vertivle stripes or bands but they don't show up well with the flash. they were collected near Lubbock, TX in the (panhandle of west texas) The photo is of the largest one which is 2-1/2 to 3" long. I'll bring a better camera home from work and try to get some better pictures.

In the mean time here is another pic. this is a differnet fish but was caught at the same place/time thanks

Don

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The anal fin is too short to be a crappie.

We still don't know how big this fish is. It could be a baby. What does a baby orangespotted sunfish look like? I have not seen them under 1.5 inches. He caught it in o-spot territory. Could it be?

I am looking at some 2" to 3" O' spots as i write this, all of mine have a white border to the gill flap. Very evident. my o' spots came from South Carolina and i think that this guy said he was in Texas, could be a regional thing.

Also re-reading his original post he asked about care for this fish

temp should be room temp not over 78f for extended periods of time, and cold temps do not matter
try to switch it to floating pellets, usually with sunnies it is easy (they naturally eat insects off the top of the water) supplement their diet with fw shrimp, earth worms, crickets, blood worms about once a week or so.
(to get them switched to floating pellets I would feed it crickets or try cut up worms, the fish will soon associate anything you put in the tank with food, starve it for a few days and then try the pellets 2 times a day. You can wait it out; those fish can go 2 weeks w/o food so don’t give in.)

They will adjust to almost any water conditions

I think red ear sunnie

I am looking at some 2" to 3" O' spots as i write this, all of mine have a white border to the gill flap. Very evident. my o' spots came from South Carolina and i think that this guy said he was in Texas, could be a regional thing.

I think red ear sunnie

Talk is cheap, I'll agree on redear as a best guess purely from mouth, head and body shape.

Talk is cheap, I'll agree on redear as a best guess purely from mouth, head and body shape.

I also am fairly certain this is a redear.

Just to throw a wrench into the redear works....Both fishes have short, rounded pectoral fins. That last photo sure looks more like a Redear than a Pumkinseed though.

Shellcracker maybe?

Shellcracker maybe?

shellcracker is another name used for redear sunfish

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