Bluegills - Good or Bad

[Qwek]

Hi Folks,

Here a fish that have the international fishing community divided, as some see it as a pest and other prized it a game fish and even as a good meal.

Bluegill (the following information is from Answers.com: www.answers.com/topic/bluegill

Lepomis macrochirus

FAMILY

Centrarchidae

TAXONOMY

Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque, 1819, Ohio River, United States. Two or three subspecies are recognized.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Bluegill sunfish, sunfish; German: Blauer Sonnenbarsch; Spanish: Pez sol.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Maximum total length 16 in (41 cm). Broad, rather flat fish with a small mouth. Distinguished from its relatives by an all-black opercular flap, general gray-blue coloration, a dark spot at the rear edge of the soft dorsal fin, and dark banding on the sides of the body.

DISTRIBUTION

Common in North America from southern Canada to northern Mexico; widely introduced throughout the world.

HABITAT

Freshwater, inland waters from large lakes to small ponds, also slow-moving streams. Prefers some type of cover, such as rocky or vegetated areas.

BEHAVIOR

Schooling fishes. Schools of several dozen smaller fishes ranging up to 4 in (10.2 cm) long are commonly seen along lake shores in 1–2 ft (0.3–0.6 m) of water, darting from beneath docks and boats. Larger fishes generally remain further from shore in deeper water. Cleaning behavior has been recorded for Florida populations.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Mainly diurnal feeders. Diet comprises invertebrates and small fishes.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Breeds in the late spring and early summer, when groups of males enter shallow water to begin building nests, which are depressions in the substrate. The male guards its nest. Females may also spawn with smaller males known as satellite and sneaker males, which take on the female coloration and fool nesting males into allowing them to approach and mate with females coming to the nest. Sneaker males may also lie in ambush in vegetation near a nesting male's site, wait for females to arrive, then quickly swim through the nest site, ejecting milt. The spherical, demersal eggs, which are laid singly or in small clusters, typically hatch in two to three days. Bluegills in the field typically attain sexual maturity at two to three years and about 4–5 in (10.2–12.7 cm) in length. Bluegills hybridize with pumpkinseeds and many other sunfish species.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Sport and minor commercial food and aquarium fishes.

In Japan it is considered as an aggressive non-native species of fish which is replacing native that got the Government flipped over it.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7094048.stm

Beside being prized as a gamefish in the US, the Bluegill is also enlisted in the fight against terrorism. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5360612.stm

Maybe the PUB or NEA can consider introducing the Bluegill into our local water.

I had the chance to fish Bluegill in San Diego and it fight pound for pound better the local bass. I think even as good as the Peacockbass too.

Cheers

Qwek

[kfd]

Thanks for sharing the great info.

I think it is good as long as it stay where it belongs. There's always a shock to the eco system when non native species are introduced..

[galong]

I used to live in Virginia and there used to be a place called Back Bay. I say "used" to be a place because the Army Corp of Engineers had the brilliant idea of flooding this shallow freshwater lake with saltwater to kill the milfoil weeds. This killed the weeds... and all of the fish. This was one of the easiest places imaginable to catch Largemouth Bass and big Bluegill.

My best day ever was on a black sponge spider. I caught ten Bluegills over a pound each. The biggest one was 2 1/2 pounds! It looked a bit freaky it was so big.

I wish there was a Bluegill pond somewhere near Phuket, though I do agree that introducing a foreign species is a risky move. Having said that, I wonder if the Bluegill could survive in the same waters as snakehead fish and other major predators.

[Qwek]

Hi Galong,

I think the closest we have around here is the mayan, not sure if there are any in Thaniland.

Cheers

Qwek