The Colorful, Native US Fish That Acts Like a Cichlid! A Guide To Pumpkinseed Fish. Lepomis gibbosus
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2023
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the net used was Jonah's Aquarium .com "The Perfect dip net", and is my favorite fish collecting tool, hands down. Also jonahsaquarium.com sells sun fish and pan fish as well as many other native fish for ponds and aquariums. thanks you to them for sending out nets wherever im collecting!
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I’ve caught thousands of them but never thought of keeping them in an aquarium. I can definitely see the appeal to that. They are certainly beautiful. A pumpkin seed sun fish is super pretty
I do think they are an amazing fish, that's why I keep a couple pumpkinseeds as well as many other sunfish. North American native fish deserve more exposure to the fishkeeping community, and I think what you're doing is great.
Thanks. I thought so too hehe
I kept a green sunfish last year and loved it
I think sunfish are just as interesting and beautiful as cichlids in the aquarium. Love them all!
Green sunfish are good pets if you want a largemouth but don't have the space. You can keep a pair in a 75 gallon. And they're a lot of fun. You can feed them crickets and nightcrawlers as their main food source.
Totally
And the best part about keeping wild caught, native fish is the food is free.
I remember from my childhood how absolutely gorgeous these are. Used to hang out underwater just to look at them. Ate plenty of them too but never thought they could live in an aquarium!
Me too!
Very beautiful fish, kinda like the Texas cichlids, Keyhole, Flowerhorn,...
Totally
Thank you for this, I am a high school biology teacher in Indiana and we have a pet pumpkinseed in our class.
Oh very cool! I had one for a while as well... his name was Mr. Gibson and he ate baby bass 2x a day ... he was a handful. He was also very beautiful though
I wish I could have the space to have a large tank with pumpkins and other sunfish. Some catfish and shiners!
Nice video. Very pretty fish indeed.
Here in Portugal there are plenty of them in our lagoons, peaty they are considered an invasive species. I usted to catch them (and release them after) with a small net for fun when i was a kid (forgive me for my bad english)
Yes...i saw how they are now in almost every european nation too!
These guys also make excellent birth control for a koi pond.
Very true haha pretty agressive
Absolutely love pumpkin seeds and other lepomis species! I keep several in my 180g lake champlain biotope.
Very cool. I love your tanks
I Have a school of ten pumpkinseeds. Pretty cool fish
Whoa! Very cool. How large of a tank do they live in?
@@Fishtory 90 gallon, the biggest is only about 4 inches
@@Fishtory sadly they are outgrowing their home but will be moving to my friends small pond soon. Hoping then we will get a good spawn!
I kept one in my tank. Super hardy and interesting fish.
Definitely!
gorgeous fishes...I love those things
Beautiful ❤ thanks for bringing us along Alex ❤️
I put a small bluegill in a tank with 3 larger convicts and the convicts could not take the pressure. The bluegill is extremely territorial so be careful what you put it with. It did perfectly fine with a pacu. They totally ignored each other.
Haha whoa. Yeah they are a handful. I think they are just as mean as a green terror or jack Dempsey...if not more
Wow that's an amazing pattern on them.. so kool
Yeah similar to wild discus:)
Love native fish Would love to see more
I've caught of them at Bulgaria and Turkey...
Yes. It's amazing how many places they are now found. It's very difficult for endemic species
Yeah all of the buggies from the mystery’s of the deep. The water scorpion, back swimmers and more. They hurt like crazy. And also the bird in the background sounds like a fire work.
Love all different topics
Thank you
That marbling, it's gorgeous, wow
Right?
Love the natives! Thx!
Me too!
Love that you did a video on these guys. I always catch them when I’m fishing now I want to keep one in a aquarium!
You should!
My favorite fish to keep. I find if you get Lepomis very young you can get them on to prepared food and that will help with overall aggression. Keeping the shoaling species in groups too.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing
Thanks!
Thank YOU. 😊
Thsnks Alex!
Thank YOU my friend
Fishtory - I know it is hard to believe but bluegill, crappie, and channel catfish in my California backyard pond all survived 98 degree water tempature. That is well beyond what I have seen reported.
Oh totally! I believe it though, Cali gets hot hot hot annually, probably good genes haha.
Well, you've convinced me that I must go and collect one from our local waterways. Such gorgeous fish, and I love their hardiness.
Please do!
The American Cichlid. A really special animal. Amazing video.
Thanks
Almost heading out trough Brazil with a net catching fish because of you. Must be a very nice outdoor activity!
You should! And bring me!
Love north American fish, they're so beautiful.
Love your native fish videos (pumpkinseed sunfish for the win!), but also love your swoon-worthy exotic fish videos. (Marbled pearlscale angelfish with red eyes and wide fins, Pearl Gourami/Trichopodus leeri, Longfin Neon Tetra/Paracheirodon innessi, Zebra pleco/Hypancistrus zebra L046, Zebra danio/Danio rerio, and Red Wag Platys are my favorite fish.)
Great choices of fish favorites.
Such beautiful fish! I used to have a tank with Pumpkinseed, Red Brest, Green, and assorted Dollar Sunfish. They were absolutely gorgeous. I had them in a heavily planted tank with some open sandy areas. All was good until they got to be around 5"long. Then they destroyed the plants and became quite aggressive with each other. The dollar sunfish were supposed to max out at 4", but they kept growing. They all grew quite large. I think it's safe to say that I overstocked my 75g with these with 3 Dollars, plus the other 3.
Glad you are showing these fish!
Yeah im keeping 1 in a 40... im just worried he may need a female or friend of some sort for stimuli... but ill move him to a 55 if i add one
used to catch those and bluegills in Lower Michigan
Hahahah oh my God you also think of that because I always think of pumpkin seeds suns acting like cichlids because they do have exactly the same replica. They do have exactly the same look as well. Although it’s kind of funny because we have those introduced in the West Coast I am from Vancouver BC and we have a lot of those in local lakes and ponds
Exactly!!9
I honestly don't see why so many people keep all these exotic fish when we have these beautiful fish right in our backyard.
Absolutely gorgeous! I need to get some good photos of the longear sunfish we have here. They are really orangeish red color.
I think theyre even better than the pumpkinseeds...but they do get 2 or 3x larger
@@Fishtory I think that's all going to be in the eye of the beholder.
When handling those fish, you can also grip them by putting a thumb on across the belly and use all your fingers to push the dorsal fin down and back in the same direction as the spines are pointing. You may be able to use some kind of rubber or other similar gloves to help keep from disturbing the slime coat.
I've kept a series of pumkinseeds in my aquarium (90gal) out in my shop over that last ten years or so. I catch them in my creek when they're about an inch and a half. For food I had to do a bit of trial and error but when they're small dried bloodworms work well. When they get bigger they seem to like Hikari food sticks for top feeding predators. Of course when they're big they'll also happily eat goldfish. The Hikari stuff seems to work great though and I find it a lot cheaper and more convenient than live food. I double checked after watching this vid and the eyespot on my current one is a dark crimson.
Hi, I put a small bluegill in my goldfish pond to help control the population. The goldfish breed like crazy and the pond will suffer from so many of them. I have been using a minnow trap to get some of the 1-2 inch long babies out since I believe they are to big for the bluegill or the young frogs to eat. The pond is 20'x12' with 11 adult goldfish and I'm thinking about 30 large goldfish will be good to have, but I thought most of the eggs and babies would get eaten by the adults. I was clearly wrong and need to get many more out and hope the bluegill and frogs will be more effective next year. The frogs are female northern green frogs that showed up 7 weeks ago and have grown nicely. I have seen them hunt the babies which is fun to watch. Another young female showed up last week and I see she is also doing great. I like the big goldfish but need to get a balance in order.
These are also really cool personality wise, we used to have one that acted like a water puppy, super fun to interact with.
I have wanted for years to set up a really large tank (175-240 gallon range) with a few of these and a few hornpout breeding. In there and all sorts of native American plants. Maybe keep it in an unheated porch that is kept just above freezing.
Maybe someday I'll have a house and space to set something that scale up. . . Fun to dream anyway!
Amazing
GREAT VIDEO ALEX LOL WHEN WE GOING COLLECTING 😆
You tell me my man!
Alix 👍
I have my main intent to build a combo of a bluegill, yellow perch & largemouth bass tank setup, even as for now I'm just starting to build a snail, shrimp & mosquito fish tank to let me feed those larger fish decently, so more information on these North American natives would definitely be helpful. As it stands though I'm glad for this added info of these sunfish being able to breed/hybridize with each other without intervention (like french bulldogs), as especially for ease of my counting later to have different looking fish will ease things.
Right on. Thats doing it the right way!
Green sunfish are also very colorful when they're breeding.
Yes. We have those also here. They hybrids are very hard to tell apart up here in WA. Usually they dont get that "pan" fish shape up here.
Spine fish us anglers support spine fish by the fins with our fingers , rather than pulling on the tail. They can spin around and stab you.
Good call lol
Hey Alex! Great video thank you for sharing! I fish for sunfish and bass up in NY and never really thought to keep them in an aquarium setting, never really appreciated their beauty until your video, I think because we always view exotics as more valuable, but the ones right at home are just as beautiful. I stepped into a local lake filled with them and they all gathered around my feet, no idea why, maybe I’m just a fish whisperer! Lol maybe they viewed my legs as structure. When I’m able to get a bigger tank I would love to keep some! Thanks again for all you do for this hobby! Also, I will send you a submission of my 10 gallon, would love your honest opinion 😁
Right on! And im glad you take those moments to enjoy the beautiful fish we have here. It's easy to forget what is special about our place in the world
Really cool. I'm from Indiana and I grew up fishing. I can't remember when Daddy or Gran wasn't taking all 5 of us kids. And sunfish and bluegill we're what we caught. Of course we didn't realize that they were catching catfish. We thought we were on top every time we caught one. It didn't matter if it was only 4 inches long and that we always had to throw them back in. Nope, not at all. LOL.
My father was the same way
@@Fishtory Well yeah, I guess I am old enough to be your m.......... Much older sister. LMAO 😂
i like deep frying them as snack XD but they arent bad tank fish but u need 55 gallon plus tanks or ponds
Yeah good point
A couple tips: when handling fish, you can help reduce the impact to their slime coat by wetting your hands. I always like to wet my hands when possible to handle fish like this.
When you’re fishing for these guys with baits or lures, (with one wet hand for holding the fish) start at the head area and slide your hand down their back to hold them gently, while also preventing their spines from coming up.
Pumpkinseed are extremely aggressive and will eat almost ANYTHING you put near them. They are so aggressive that they even prevent large bluegill snd redear sunfish from coming into their areas, by stealing their food
They love clear water, and sandy ground. When around a boat ramp look where gravel has fell in the water, and youll usually see pumpkinseed.
100% thanks for the handling advice! I have been pricked by them about 200 times too many lol.
Are you familiar with Blue Spotted, and Black Banded Sunfish? They stay much smaller and are more peaceful. Vey beautiful in their own way. I have bred them in planted tanks.
Darters are awesome too!
Yes! I kept some that i caught in south carolina years ago...i wish we had them in WA!
I have a 200g pond. I put a few minnow species in it last year and 3 long ears this year. The best part for me is to find out how nobody knows what they're talkin about with native fish.
The long ears are beautiful. I put a photo of the long eared sunfish in one photo of look alikes/similar species. They get a bit bigger and seem to have more intense reds than pumpkinseeds
Such a cool fish to keep. However, it is very problematic fish in my country (Turkey). It can be observed in many freshwater lakes, rivers etc as an invasive species. Once, I caught some of them and they are very funny fish, their behaviour is very interesting as well like other cichlid species.
Rio Grand Cichlid is actually a cichlid from North America.
Fire mouth too hehe
do you have any videos on fresh water clams? supposed to be great for filtering so i didnt know if they could be added to a tank and maybe help balance the ecosystem.
I dont...but i have played with them... theyre great as are limpets in unfiltered tanks, specifically
Beautiful. We're not allowed to keep them here in the UK incase they get released into the wild and become invasive.
Funny to hear that, we want the smaller snakehead species and y'all across the pond want the sunfish. Both illegal for the same reasons.
Haha yes
I kept longear and green sunfish previously. They go from wild and skittish to absolute puppies in a week. Couldnt get them to eat prepared foods but worms and bugs off the porch are cheap.
Mine are the same way... they learn you are the "food man" quickly lol
I think long ear sunfish are the prettiest freshwater fish on the planet , and they are as smart as oscars !
Ozarks longear and orange spots 🥰
100% agree
In romania we call them Regina (queen)
I would say sunfish are meaner than cichlids. Put an 8" bluegill in a tank with a 18" dovi, and he'll have that poor cichlid cowering in the corner. Those were some nice pumpkinseeds! I personally like the Ozark longear the best. They're the most voracious fish I've ever had. Orangespotted sunfish are also quite lovely. Those are harder to come by though. Bluespotted sunfish in spawning dress remind me of the starry night cichlid. Blackbanded sunfish remind me of wild type angelfish, especially when younger. Have you ever looked into the native killifish? And I'm not just talking about the Florida flagfish, which is really very stunning in their own right.
Yeah i love killis...and also agree about the sunfish being the prettiest.
I have shebunkin gold fish and am creating a 250gallon bog system pond my room.. I'm wondering if they eat Java fern or anubias I live in the fingerlakes NYS
so i caught a pumpkinseed today randomly and its doing well from the river but several amall bluegill i caught from a deep duh gravel pit lake didnt even survive the journey home ( i even had a battery bubblee) is it possible fish from the deep lakes arent as compatable as others?
Yes, it could be the temperature or ph too. Sometimes fish just get shocked and die of such a change unfortunately. Most bluegills would usually survive that trip though, so im not 100% sure what went wrong. Sorry
@@Fishtory thankyou! . do people expect you to precisely know the problems / solution normally? seems a big ask
I’d say centrarchids in general are North America’s cichlids.
Fair enough
Hey man how fast has yours grown ? Based on mines general birthday based on this video it went from like inch n a half to freaking 9 I swear 😂 bigger than my bishir . The shiners blew up as well to lol
Yeah 6 months it went from an inch to like 8 hehe
I love the natives but feel sad at the same time because I will never see any of my natives in my country especially along from San Francisco to Seattle because I’m an adopted Aussie so I have to settle for the most common fish in the trade for Hobby but that doesn’t make any less special or pretty. I just love our Hobby so much as fish keepers.
Welllll.... you could get into rainbow fish perhaps? There are lots of cool fish in northern and eastern Australia
@@Fishtory Very true my friend. I love having a fish fam. because it really gives me that much more purpose in my life. I have all the purpose I need with my 3 Perfect Babies who I’m with on the weekends but that’s “more for them”.
It’s really great to talk to someone in my fish fam. who shares my passion to just get out of my own head. It really makes me happy. I have never seen baby guppies before. One of my guppies had 3 or 4 babies. I can’t believe how exciting it is. I am building my daughters in my pet corner in our place but that will take a few more months so I just have fish buckets🪣🪣🪣 running to get the seed material well & truly prompt. thank you very much for the response my friend.
Sincerely Dellsea.
Actually my Daughters get almost as excited about the fish just like me but they just are not prepared to get into the Aquarium hobby at this stage.
I like fish 😁 native, subtropical, and tropica. I do find it amazing that so many invasive (to the water body) are released intentionally by state management to make a dollar. I really dislike the stance taken tword "invasive" species, way too many double standards... Sorry for the short rant, but no one is perfect, and everyone has an opinion 😊
Lol...yeah this is a textbook example of double standards...theyre still stocked in many lakes in WA...yes are not from here at all.
if you catch them when they are very small , say no bigger than a quarter , they will readily take to eating flake food and pellets.
but any fish that can fit in their mouth is going to be eaten , and any fish they think might fit will get killed from them biting it.
Yeah the one i have in the fish room is eating carnivore xtreme pellets but only as they sink...its progress. Hes all alone in a 40g for now
All of mine will eat just about anything! And even right from my hand.
I always love the native spotlights but these fish aren't exactly friendly to other fish so just a word of warning, expect african chiclid temperament. Gorgeous though and I'd love to try a more medium to small species, like 4-5in max but not a 1in species because they're cute but might not make the greatest centerpiece fish for a large tank lol
Also ngl, partly watching this for the pictures of other fish species since idk what exactly I have a hybrid of but the ear is rounder so definitely not a longear sunfish. Ear is also a black dot with a thin yellowish rim. The color edging on that one male's fins though... The white on mine is turning yellow/gold and body has bright blue undertones so yeah, fun, they might be related for all ik, just wish it didn't see fish up to 2in as food when it's only 3in atm ^^'
Yes great point. Ive just got one alone
@@Fishtory yeah I'm not even sure if they could be mixed with something like a South American chiclid, or another fish of their type, I mean maybe but I probably have one of the biggest freshwater tanks around and I don't think it's big enough to try that. I think unless they can be bred over some generations for a milder temperament, they kinda just need to be treated like an oscar or red devil and assume tankmates won't work more often then not
is that the same as a red earred sunfish?
No, but i did put a photo of one red ear/long ear sunfish when showing the similar fish. Those can withstand heat much better than pumpkinseeds...and get about 2x bigger
So sad, in Canada, keeping native fish is illegal😢
I would have a nice native tank with crapet soleil and sticklebacks 🥰
Even if raised in aquaria by a licensed farm? Like can you stock ponds on a large property with them? If so, you may have a retailer whom is licensed to sell them...and taking wild ones may be illegal...and historically these fish are not from canada but the center of the USA it seems... but perhaps thats all just semantics and theyre banned up there due to their ability to spread?
Would a pumpkinseed eat endlers?
All day long…
Definitely
At the beginning of the video when you said pumpkin seed, you showed a picture of a longear sunfish. ( Lepomis megalotis) Then you proceeded to show two pictures of green sunfish (Lepomis cyaneus) and said that one was a warmouth. (Lepomis gulosis). The picture you showed (after the pumpkin seed Lepomis gubosus) when you were talking about the fish coloring up during spring was an orange spotted sunfish. These major differences have nothing to do with regions or sub species, they are just entirely different species. Then you proceeded to say the way to differentiate the pumpkin seed from the bluegill is the orange spot behind the ear. Most species of sunfish excluding the bluegill have that orange spot, so it would not help you in differentiating a pumpkin seed. Also, the last example of a hybrid was a full blooded lepomis megalotis, the longear sun fish. I would encourage you to research into the long eared sunfish. You will soon find that they (without being hybridized), are the prettiest of all the sunfish by far. Other than that, good video, I wish more people would talk about native fish. So kudos to you for making people aware of the beauty in their backyard!
Are you sure about those IDs? Because i took them all from state fish and game website lol. Because admittedly im not the best as telling the differences... here in washington we only have bluegill, a few warmouth, rock bass, pumpkinseed fish and green sunfish... and luckily here they look pretty obviois. But ive noticed that even with ichthyologists accompanying me in places like florida (like anthony mazeroll recently) ... we had a really hard time confirming these Identifications when not in our home region, where we are used to what makes them look certain ways.
Thank you for pointing this out, i actually should take down the video if all that info is incorrect. Im just (sort of) surprised that the fish and wildlife websites would have it all mixed up. But i did know one was a long ear sunfish when i was showing various pan/sun fish.
Also we don't have any of the other species here with red ears, so im guessing that's why my WA state fish book points out the ear mark.
Thank you though, i dont mean to be questioning your ID skills, but just wanted to confirm this before taking it down
Outdoor Alabama mixes up photos for fish all the time lol. I am 100% positive about all the IDs I mentioned as I have studied Lepomis genus for many years. I wouldn’t suggest taking the video down though. Most people don’t know the difference. I don’t think it’s gonna have a disastrous affect for anyone. I would suggest when getting photos, if you look up the species name, the majority of the photos on Google images are accurate with wrong ones sprinkled out in there.
After so much study it gets to where distinguishing the species is like telling the difference between a Great Dane and a Yorkee. The more you study the easier it gets. I think sunfish are so cool and I think it’s really fun to study them. You’ll find it easier the more you look into it. Looking forward to more native vids
Did someone say Discus!?
Where can I purchase TR native fish species online?
Aquaticarts.com, dansfish (i have discount codes to both in the description)... but they tend to only carry 4 to 5 species at a time.
Jonahsaquarium.com is the other site that sells pond raised /farmed natives
@@Fishtory thank you! 😁
it is a cichlid.
The sunfish? No...but they are somewhat related
Sorry dude but a 6" pumpkin seed doesn't have a prayer in hell, defending itself from a large mouth bass. Catfish woukd make quick work of one as well. Most the pumpkin seed in public waters are stunted and don't grow over 3" anyways.
In Washington state they get the size of our blue gills, I don't know If it's temperature or food or what. But we have millions of fry from large mouth bass in the same water as pumpkins in may- July and they eat a lot of young bass
It's that "chink in the armor" that prolly prohibits a LOT of fish keepers. Lot easier to heat a tank than cool it down. I also think you need at least 40 gallon tank, ideally larger, to keep a few happy and healthy. But they are a lot like many cichlids and prettier than most.
Agreed 👍