Sunfish or Bluegill

[Scott293]

When I was a kid I can remember catching sunfish and bluegill and taking them home to put in an aquarium. I didn't know anything about the science of water and could never keep them alive.

I have seen fish at pet stores and now online and really enjoy my discus, but have always wondered why these pretty sunfish and bluegills have never been an aquarium fish. I can remember seeing sunfish with blue striations and color through them very similar to wild discus. Does anyone have any idea why this fish has not ended up in aquariums? If they are only in North America, do other countries want this fish?

Just something I have wondered

[Larry Bugg]

http://www.nanfa.org/

[ericatdallas]

http://www.nanfa.org/

+1

Yeah, I've thought about keeping N. American fish too. If you join CAFE or GCAS, they usually have one or two fishing trips to catch local fish. I've been wanting a darter for a while now.

[Scott293]

Interesting Larry,
Thanks for the info. I had to pull myself away from reading to avoid spending my saturday online. I'm glad to see that there is interest in NA native fish and that they have been captive bred.

Eric,
I can remember catching darters too in Missouri streams when I was a kid. We used to flip under water rocks over slowly to see the darters and crayfish. I can even remember seeing very color full ones which may have been the rainbow darters. Just pick a stream to go wading in this summer and start flipping rocks over. I have not done that in this part of the country but I know in Missouri there are some interesting small stream fishes.

[zchauvin]

+1

Yeah, I've thought about keeping N. American fish too. If you join CAFE or GCAS, they usually have one or two fishing trips to catch local fish. I've been wanting a darter for a while now.

I just saw this thread but here in Louisiana we have fishing ponds all around and before discus I always have bream(just another name we use) in my tank. When I had just the 29g I would just throw a cast net in the pond and catch about thirty babies at once, pick the ones I wanted and put in brand new uncycled tank. Those fish don't die no matter what you do. And get to approx. 5-6 inches just being fed flakes once a day and wc once every month or so. Bear in mind this is before I knew anything about fish but hey if you want a cheap north american discus that lives for nothing get some blue gill :)

[Darrell Ward]

Yeah. Bream, Bluegill, Sunfish, Pumpkinseed. They are many names and subspecies. Heck, I've seen them thriving in drainage ditches in coastal South Carolina. These little fish are absolutely fearless, and can beat the crap out of fish twice their size. Fun to watch in an aquarium.

[Darrell Ward]

Interesting Larry,
Thanks for the info. I had to pull myself away from reading to avoid spending my saturday online. I'm glad to see that there is interest in NA native fish and that they have been captive bred.

Eric,
I can remember catching darters too in Missouri streams when I was a kid. We used to flip under water rocks over slowly to see the darters and crayfish. I can even remember seeing very color full ones which may have been the rainbow darters. Just pick a stream to go wading in this summer and start flipping rocks over. I have not done that in this part of the country but I know in Missouri there are some interesting small stream fishes.

As kids growing up in the high mountains of NC, we used to sharpen our fly rod skills in the small headwater streams, catching all sorts of cool looking little stream fish on tiny little, black ant pattern flies, occasional tricking a native speckled trout as well. :D

[LizStreithorst]

They're cool fish. Tastey, too. A word of warning...don't go skinny dipping in a creak where there are baby ones.

[mmorris]

They're cool fish. Tastey, too. A word of warning...don't go skinny dipping in a creak where there are baby ones.

Do tell! I bet I'm not the only one who wants to know. :grin:

[Scott293]

They're cool fish. Tastey, too. A word of warning...don't go skinny dipping in a creak where there are baby ones.

Lol! Liz that is funny. Been there done that, know exactly what you are talking about

[KEWX]

Sunfish or Bluegill! Check out my avatar.

[Sean Buehrle]

Sunfish or Bluegill! Check out my avatar.

A pumpkinseed


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[KEWX]

A pumpkinseed.

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CORRECT! I remember catching them in a Vermont lake when I was a kid and they had beautiful coloring. I think that's why I was drawn to discus.

[Sean Buehrle]

CORRECT! I remember catching them in a Vermont lake when I was a kid and they had beautiful coloring. I think that's why I was drawn to discus.

Yep they are a nice looking fish, they taste good too. I usta catch em by the basket load with a popper and a flyrod. They were huge. Good little fighters too.


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[Bill63SG]

When I was a kid in Chicago,my Dad and I would dip-net almost every Sat morning.We didn't know about permits,but come to think about it,we would put our bucket and net down,walk out of the woods,and then go back and get them.Probably looking for rangers.We caught everything.Goldfish,sunfish,bullheads,tadpoles,and baby snapping turtles.Kept them in a 15gal in the living room until one day we went and got a 30GAL!Everybody had 10gal.My Dad didn't trust it,and being a Tool and Die guy,fabricated a center brace for it.

[Condor]

I was just thinking about this topic this weekend. Saw a pond where a school of sunfish/bluegill would come up to the shore and take food that visitors fed them. There were even some bass in the crowd. The sunfish/bluegill seemed like they would be cool in an aquarium.

Adrian

[misfitdog]

I have kept bluegill / warmouth (a small species of sunfish) easily in the past . they did very well in a 90G tank i set up and i did nothing out of the ordinary to keep them alive . they actually thrived in the aquarium for along time , with a silver Arowana and a Red tail catfish :) the red tail catfish finally outgrew them and they became a snack but that was several months later . I would feed them earth worms straight out of the yard and they loved them.

[scottthomas]

I keep them in my pond with Koi and gold fish. Everyone gets along fine. They eat out of our hands.

[Bill63SG]

I keep them in my pond with Koi and gold fish. Everyone gets along fine. They eat out of our hands.I would keep a Large Mouth in my upper pond,it's like a big waterfall,100gal into 110gal into 150gal,and when we bought mice for our corn snake,I would by 2 for the bass.I would fatten them up and let them go in Sept.

[Larry Bugg]

I would keep a Large Mouth in my upper pond,it's like a big waterfall,100gal into 110gal into 150gal,and when we bought mice for our corn snake,I would by 2 for the bass.I would fatten them up and let them go in Sept.

By let them go do you mean putting them back into a lake?

[Bill63SG]

By let them go do you mean putting them back into a lake?Yep,catch one in spring,fatten up,and let back go into lake with time to re-adapt.

[walan20]

They actually taste very good fried. The thing about bluegill and sunfish are that there are no "domestic" strains.

[Larry Bugg]

Yep,catch one in spring,fatten up,and let back go into lake with time to re-adapt.

Were you aware that it is against the law to catch, keep and then release wild fish?

[KEWX]

I think in some states you get a permit to keep them especially if you are a member of http://www.nanfa.org/

[Larry Bugg]

I think in some states you get a permit to keep them especially if you are a member of http://www.nanfa.org/

You misunderstand, I didn't say it was against the law to catch and keep. Yes you can get a permit and do that. It against the law to release the back into the wild after you have caught and kept them.

[Bill63SG]

Were you aware that it is against the law to catch, keep and then release wild fish?Yes,now lock me up.Every firework I've lit off and beer I consumed while I was underage also.I bet my wife $20 that someone would take time I spent with my Dad and time I spent with my son and bring up the legalities.I'm sure everyone else in this thread had thier permits.Ex-Biker here who never thought he would be discusing lawn-care products with his neighbor's.Grain of salt people and lightend up.

[Larry Bugg]

Yes,now lock me up.Every firework I've lit off and beer I consumed while I was underage also.I bet my wife $20 that someone would take time I spent with my Dad and time I spent with my son and bring up the legalities.I'm sure everyone else in this thread had thier permits.Ex-Biker here who never thought he would be discusing lawn-care products with his neighbor's.Grain of salt people and lightend up.

I asked if you were aware because there is a good reason for the law. If you weren't aware then it is good knowledge for you to have. Catching wild fish, keeping them and then releasing them back into the wild later has the potential to be disastrous. There is a potential that the fish you release may be carrying something that could harm or destroy the ecosystem you are putting them back into. It isn't quite the same as shooting off ilegal fire works. I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers but I think this is a very important topic that shouldn't be taken lightly.

[zchauvin]

I think nature is fully capable of taking care of itself, oil dumped into the ocean for three months and you don't see it falling apart. How do you think the earth has lasted so long. I don't think making a fish bigger then putting him back is on the same page as say introducing a new species where it doesn't belong. Think of it as a conservation act :-)

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[Second Hand Pat]

Zach, Larry is talking about the potential release of pathogens and/or disease into a native population in which it doesn't naturally occur and the native population having no natural defense to the pathogen and/or disease introduced. Lots of damage has been done at a local level with the release of exotics into the state of Florida for example.

http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/unitedstates/fl.shtml

[zchauvin]

Yeah I know what he means pat, I guess a man made pond and actual lakes ect do differ to some extent, I just don't think much harm could be done from keeping a fish in an aquarium with quality care then releasing again.

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[Second Hand Pat]

Yea but why risk it. :) I live on a natural lake and many lakes here in Florida are part of a chain of lakes which feed into rivers.

[ZX10R]

Yea but why risk it. :) I live on a natural lake and many lakes here in Florida are part of a chain of lakes which feed into rivers.

In Florida you have so many non-native species taking over down there it is not funny. Just turn on animal planet and watch Swamps Wars you will see. Between snakes, lizards, and fish there isn't going to be any native species left in another decade.

[Sean Buehrle]

The laws regarding putting fish in waterways has nothing to do with diseases. If diseases were easily transferable in a river or lake there would be no fish left.
Can you imagine what crytobia would do to wild discus if it were true that it's easily spread throughout fish populations?

Laws against dumping fish in a body of water are in regards to transferring a fish from one body to another.

And of course releasing an invasive species, like what happened in Florida with oscars and jack dempsys.

I doubt it's illegal to take a bass home and then release it in the same body of water.
It's unlawful to transfer that fish from one body to another no matter the species.
Nothing to do with disease .


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[Second Hand Pat]

In Florida you have so many non-native species taking over down there it is not funny. Just turn on animal planet and watch Swamps Wars you will see. Between snakes, lizards, and fish there isn't going to be any native species left in another decade.

So true Sean. The Cuban tree frog showed up here at the house a couple of years ago and totally replaced the native green tree frog. I do not even see the little green ones any more. I recall reading that the Cuban tree frogs eat the young of green tree frog. Makes me sad and angry which I see one of the Cuban tree frogs.

[Second Hand Pat]

Sean, are you suggesting pathogens/disease are not a concern and/or that the laws have another purpose?

[zchauvin]

Sean, are you suggesting pathogens/disease are not a concern and/or that the laws have another purpose?

I agree with him 100%. As I had replied earlier, those laws go for fish and plants. Hyacinth was introduced to the basin here in la and overgrew making oxygen levels disappear this leading to draining the basin to kill it and all life inside. Bringing different species no matter what it is into an alien place is never good.

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[Bill63SG]

Point taken.But I'll be bluntly honest here.kept a fish/fishes that was proabably undersize without a permit.Kept it in a home pond for fun,and let them go back into lake.Just relating a story,experience.Not a invasive,non-native species.

[zchauvin]

Point taken.But I'll be bluntly honest here.kept a fish/fishes that was proabably undersize without a permit.Kept it in a home pond for fun,and let them go back into lake.Just relating a story,experience.Not a invasive,non-native species.

Can't help it, I've kept a bream before. I don't think its a problem unless your putting things were they don't belong.

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[Sean Buehrle]

Sean, are you suggesting pathogens/disease are not a concern and/or that the laws have another purpose?

I'm sure it is, but the main reason is because a fish that is introduced to a body of water that doesn't have that species messes up the balance.

It's like the Asian carp here in Illinois they are outcompeting all other species and will soon lay waste to the Illinois river. you dont hear anything about disease, what you do hear about is how they are eating everything including the aquatic plants, there's nothing left to eat.you can't even drive a boat down the river because you will be hit with very large fish causing injury.

There are over a 100 known fish diseases that infect fish in the state of Illinois one of them being a disease called VHS , it's symptoms include swimming in circles and gasping for air at the water surface. It's almost 100 percent fatal and highly contagious, yet fish populations are at a record high. It's also called large mouth bass disease, all the baitshops have dnr warnings posted.

Bodies of water are so huge that disease can't touch populations at an epidemic level.

I read a piece on cryptobia last week from a Florida university and they described the wild discus as a main carrier of cryptobia in the aquarium trade being brought into this country. They named it specifically as the main carrier. Even if that is true, the area they come from is so huge and populations of fish will never cross paths that even cryptobia won't even dent populations.

The dnr doesn't want a carp in a walleye lake that they built and stocked, if they catch you doing it they will do everything in their power to ruin you, you will be paying big fines and restitution.

Sure the dnr will say disease is a factor, but what about the other 99 diseases that are already there.
What about the birds eating fish in one lake and crapping them and the disease they carry into another ?

It's all bologna really. With the exception of releasing an invasive species to a body of water I don't see any harm in it.





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[Ezekiel]

Sunfish

[TURQ64]

update: it's too hot to fry 'em, so it's been catch and relase, but my grandson's on his 60th bluegill/sunny hookup..He's doing a bang up job; almost all lip hooked..Leaving tomorrow, so he'll have to switch over to walleyes and yellow perch when we get home ( ain't gonna teach him how to waylay the Northern's yet; he's too small framed)....

[Bill63SG]

update: it's too hot to fry 'em, so it's been catch and relase, but my grandson's on his 60th bluegill/sunny hookup..He's doing a bang up job; almost all lip hooked..Leaving tomorrow, so he'll have to switch over to walleyes and yellow perch when we get home ( ain't gonna teach him how to waylay the Northern's yet; he's too small framed)....Have'nt had time to kill a worm yet this summer,jealous,Gary.

[TURQ64]

Sorry, matey....We'll be leaving KY Lake late today...returning (me) in around two weeks....engine shot from the flood, so it's buy a new one for around 15K..the sort of good news is I sold the pirate ship.....(sorry for the threadjacking; my bad)..We'll tell all of the one's the little guy catches today 'this one's for Bill'!

[Bill63SG]

Sorry, matey....We'll be leaving KY Lake late today...returning (me) in around two weeks....engine shot from the flood, so it's buy a new one for around 15K..the sort of good news is I sold the pirate ship.....(sorry for the threadjacking; my bad)..We'll tell all of the one's the little guy catches today 'this one's for Bill'!If I can't be on the water,good to know I'm being thought of on the water.