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Re: Hybrid sunnies



Longears, or any lepomis for that matter, will hybridize.  The most
common way this happens is sperm from a male "X" will drift over to the
nearby longears nest.  The second and most obvious reason, is a male of
one species will for some odd reason lure another species onto his nest. 
In Wisconsin I have caught longears hybirdized with, green sunfish,
pumpkinseed, and Bluegill, as they occur in the same habitat.  Green
sunfish are your usual culprits, as I have caught hybrids with all
species of sunfish I have caught other than orange spotted and bantam
sunfish.  These probably occur as well, another common hybrid is the
pumpkinseed/bluegill.  I have been lucky (or not) enough to come across
any of the super odd hybrids such as rockbass,or largemouth/sunfish
hybrid.  I have also caughten the largemouth/small mouth hybrid the aptly
named mean mouth bass.  Generally if you are familiar with your local
sunfish, you can see who the other parent species was, although this can
be quite cryptic when one of the parents was a hybrid itself.  as hybrids
line produce F2 and F3 fish will usually lose much vigor, and become
"extinct" from the gene pool, this is the best theory of why we still
have pure strains of lepomis.
		Ray

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