Stocking bluegill is nothing even close to stocking discus. Stocking bluegill is more like stocking oscars.
Bluegill gilling like crazy
- Thread starter boojumsnark25
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Stocking bluegill is nothing even close to stocking discus. Stocking bluegill is more like stocking oscars.
not the blue gill around here.. other than they are more active than discus 
size wise they are actually smaller than discus but possibly a bit more robust..not anywhere close to an oscar .
I've seen 10" discus but never anything larger than 8-9" bluegills.
size wise they are actually smaller than discus but possibly a bit more robust..not anywhere close to an oscar .
I've seen 10" discus but never anything larger than 8-9" bluegills.
Bluegill can easily reach 12" and two pounds; they are big, aggressive, messy predators, so the oscar analogy is very apt. Just because you don't see fish that big in your local waters doesn't mean the genetic potential is not there- put some juvies in your tank and they may well balloon up to monster proportions.
Are you sure you have bluegill and not some other kind of sunfish, because where I live (new hampshire) even with harsh winters and limited growing season bluegill of 10-12" are pretty common and Ive caught fish bigger than that.
not the blue gill around here.. other than they are more active than discus
size wise they are actually smaller than discus but possibly a bit more robust..not anywhere close to an oscar .
I've seen 10" discus but never anything larger than 8-9" bluegills.
I am not going to argue about the size anymore. The max size for a bluegill ANYWHERE is 16". They regularly reach 10-12".
Show me a discus that size?
actually the dept of wildlife suspects the bluegill in the area are or may not be the same species . research is still ongoing last I heard. having similar characteristics but never reaching the larger potential size.
a 2# bluegill is rare here most often do not reach more than 6".
while I agree bluegill in some regions can and do get much larger. typically here it is not the case.
also keep in mind fish from the wild tend to get larger than captive fish. plenty of documentation regarding that.
H3D that fact that 16" is anywhere is simply NOT true.
the largest caught in this state is 2# 50z.. an exception.
a 2# bluegill is rare here most often do not reach more than 6".
while I agree bluegill in some regions can and do get much larger. typically here it is not the case.
also keep in mind fish from the wild tend to get larger than captive fish. plenty of documentation regarding that.
H3D that fact that 16" is anywhere is simply NOT true.
the largest caught in this state is 2# 50z.. an exception.
If they are a different species, then they would not be bluegill. If they are not bluegill then I am not sure how big they grow. And if the they are bluegill and they are not getting to a certain size there are probably environmental reasons causing this. Bluegill in general are well documented for there size and aggression, so I don't understand why someone would say the bluegill "here" don't get that big if they don't even know if the fish they are talking about is or isn't a bluegill to begin with. Blue gill are a specific species of fish (Lepomis macrochirus) either what he has is a bluegill or it isn't.
That is not always true. That is a commonly held belief because for many years people kept fish in tanks that were far too small for them, which in turn stunted their growth. Yes there is documentation proving fish can be stunted, but there is also plenty of documentation showing that when fish are given the proper amount of space they achieve sizes similar to that in the wild.
I also said 16" was the maximum achievable size, not all bluegill grow to 16". I said it is very common for them to reach 10-12". Especially when they are always being fed and no one is fishing them out of the water to eat.
well suffice it to say that your tank as well as all of our tanks can no where imitate the surroundings in the wild..so in fact we may all be stunting our fish.
problem here is not much real documentation on stunting and it's effect.
I do agree tho that the smaller bluegill in this region may be due to environmental factors but these factors over many hundreds and thousands of years may actually result in a genetic mutation..similar to cutting rats tails over generations resulting in shorter tails.
just a thought.
problem here is not much real documentation on stunting and it's effect.
I do agree tho that the smaller bluegill in this region may be due to environmental factors but these factors over many hundreds and thousands of years may actually result in a genetic mutation..similar to cutting rats tails over generations resulting in shorter tails.
just a thought.
If they do eventually grow larger than 8" then just pull out half of them and have a fish fry. Problem solved.
Its very possible your fish are not the Bluegill that many here are talking about. I'm an avid fisherman and know that what people call Bluegill around here are also talking about Pumpkinseed, Red Ear Sunfish, Warmouth, Green sunfish, etc.
Max size of Bluegill is contraversial on our lakes as well because new records are being smashed by a new strain of "hybrid Bluegill" that commonly surpass 2lbs in weight.
Good luck with your fish, sounds like an awesome tank.
Max size of Bluegill is contraversial on our lakes as well because new records are being smashed by a new strain of "hybrid Bluegill" that commonly surpass 2lbs in weight.
Good luck with your fish, sounds like an awesome tank.
