bantam sunfish

[decal]

Any experience with these guys? I think I caught one once up near Lake Houston, but I let him go. They have a subtle beauty reminiscent of the Enneacanthus spp. while looking more like their Lepomis cousins (see: http://gallery.nanfa.org/d/4872-4/fe...ish1+by+BZ.jpg). They are also relatively peaceful, a nice break from the aggression of greens, bluegills, longears and those little dollar twerps.

[koi]

The males are alot more more blue and are really good looking.

[decal]

FYI, I found a few adults that are clearly bantams up around Lake Houston again. The incomplete lateral line is money as far as making the I.D., otherwise they superficially resemble warmouth (who were in abundance) and juvenile bluegill. I caught one small individual that had the black spot surrounded in red at the end of dorsal fin, but the bigger ones didn't. Look in still tributaries and ponds with lots of brush and plants.

[Mzungu]

Did you keep them?

Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab

[decal]

Did you keep them?

Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab

I did. I'll take some pictures and post them later... they're in a qt tub at the moment.

[decal]

Still haven't managed to snag a picture of these guys, but I thought I'd give an update. I have three in 55g along with an orange spotted sunfish, some blackbanded sunfish, a few killifish, darters and madtoms. They are indeed mostly non-aggressive. HOWEVER, I can attest that they are not merely invertivores as many guides claim. My largest bantam ate a small (1-1.5") blackstripe topminnow shortly after I introduced it to the tank. It swam around for some time with the topminnow's tail hanging out its mouth before it worked it down. The large mouth should've given it away. Since then I've tried to keep them pretty well fed with frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp, flake and ghost shrimp. They have co-existed with a darter of similar size to the aforementioned killie for a while now.

[decal]

Finally a picture:



It's difficult to take pictures of sunfish in aquaria as they come to the glass to watch you. This one temporarily humored me. They can get much darker than this at times, so dark the black spots are not visible. They are rather iridescent and appear very shiny from from a distance.

Also managed to take a pic of an orangespotted sunfish: