# Not Sure Where to Begin



## mwirsig (Jan 4, 2008)

I work in a Wal-Mart Pet Department, so I've almost always purchased my feeders from Wal-Mart goldfish and rosy red tanks. General Pet Inc., the supplier that sends us our fish, is notorious for making mistakes in the eyes of experienced aquarists. For example, my favorite fish is a male Texas cichlid... that I purchased out of our assorted African cichlid tank. The only New World cichlids my Wal-Mart even carries are angelfish and oscars.

Another more common error is with the "comet bulk pack" or our common goldfish. We get our common goldfish in multiples of 250. So we get 250-500 fish at a time and they go straight from a bag into a tank around 5 gallons. We can't count them to ensure that they're all there so we just take the fish without any questions. Later in the week as we're selling them down we occasionally find tadpoles, frogs, and feeder guppies. On one occasion, the day the bulk pack came in I noticed a fish that looked similar to the goldfish (it was brown, but several of the fish in the bulk back are white, gray or brown), but something about it didn't look quite right to me. I continued looking around and noticed two more. An aquarist friend that I'd met on the job several months before purchased two of them before I got off work. I purchased the third when my shift ended as well as a couple of other goldfish, assuming my fish would consume all of them (they were all the same size after all).

The brown oddity was never eaten, and has of course grown a lot. He is between three and four inches long now, and has eaten a handful of rosy red feeders on occasion. When I get bored with a fish or it doesn't fit in with my other livestock I usually pass it along to an aquarist friend (I have a few friends that I visit often enough to trust with my fish), or I dump it in my mother's garden pond (sometimes I think that's why I built it for her). Anyway, I absolutely can't talk myself into giving this guy away or anything until I can identify it. If not species specific, then at least a genus. Or family. I want to have an idea of what it is.

*I don't know what the rules are for non-cichlid species identification inquiries. If they are not permitted, I guess flag me. I'm also assuming that the most acceptable way of answering a topic is with a reply post. Of the websites I frequent the most, Cichlid-Forum is in the top four, and I still don't get on here as often as I would like. If it isn't frowned upon, it would be much quicker for me to receive replies via text message or voicemail message. My cell phone number is (660) 238-5589 and my name is Mason. If you prefer to leave a post on Cichlid-Forum and/or that is the required by Cichlid-Forum policy, I'll be back eventually, and either means of replying is much appreciated.


----------



## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Is this a serious post? I find it really hard to believe that this fish could not be ID ed by anyone even with a passing interest in fish.
It is a sun fish a blue gill. Sorry for the irony but surely anyone can tell?


----------



## mwirsig (Jan 4, 2008)

The guy that bought the other two said they were blue gill, but his were both eaten when he got them home so he never saw them grow to be more than an inch long. In addition, everyone I've shown my tank to since it has gotten as big as it is that knows anything about fish (like, fishing fish, not aquarium fish) has said that it looks like a blue gill, but they don't think that it is.

I just looked through a gallery of blue gill photos on the internet, and while there are some similar features, mine still looks different to me. I guess it could be that mine didn't come out of a lake or whatever and therefore hasn't had the same food resources as those in the photos, and I've only seen mine underwater where the ones in the photos weren't underwater. I don't know, blue gill just seems like too simple of an answer. But then, maybe it's correct, and I'm just hoping for something more complex.

Either way, thanks for the reply.


----------



## etcbrown (Nov 10, 2007)

Actually 24tropheus you are close, but that is not a bluegill. It is a green sunfish, commonly called a warmouth. It has a much larger mouth (piscovorous) than a bluegill and is sort of half way between your typical bluegill or pumpkinseed sunfish and a bass.

Edit: actually warmouth are a seperate but very similar species. This one looks to be the green sunfish though.


----------



## Norse76 (Jul 20, 2008)

Very nice looking fish :thumb:


----------



## Jason S (Feb 7, 2003)

Agreed, Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus). This species is more elongate [less deep bodied] than other typical sunfish [e.g. bluegill, pumpkinseed, etc...]. Very common throughout US and more tolerant of turbid, poor water quality than other sunfish species.


----------



## atp777 (Feb 26, 2007)

Norse76 said:


> Very nice looking fish :thumb:


Beautiful fish indeed. :thumb:


----------



## bac3492 (Jul 25, 2008)

Ehh, i can see where the green sunfish is coming from, but it still looks too dark for me to think it is completely green sunfish.

I dont know of this fish distributor but i can guarauntee they probably found a pond somewhere. Killed of the bigger predators (bass, pickrel....) and then tossed in a few hundred goldfish. They probably just take a net and scoop out fish. There must still be some assorted sunfish living in this pond as well. You just got the unlucky one to get netted.


----------



## malawimix (Oct 8, 2008)

bac3492 said:


> Ehh, i can see where the green sunfish is coming from, but it still looks too dark for me to think it is completely green sunfish.
> 
> I dont know of this fish distributor but i can guarauntee they probably found a pond somewhere. Killed of the bigger predators (bass, pickrel....) and then tossed in a few hundred goldfish. They probably just take a net and scoop out fish. There must still be some assorted sunfish living in this pond as well. You just got the unlucky one to get netted.


I wouldn't doubt that one bit.
Several years ago my son came home from a school fun night with 5 goldfish. We had told him ahead of time "no goldfish" but you know how well elementary school kids remember....
Anyway, the neighbor was nice enough to let him toss them in his small backyard pond. He figured the bass would eat them up in no time. Well, the bass didn't survive the winter and after only a season or two there were hundreds if not thousands of bright orange goldfish everywhere in that pond. Very cheap way of multiplying and growing them...no expense whatsoever.


----------

