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Today at a local fish store I bought a sunfish that was mixed in with feeder goldfish (which I am assuming came from Florida). I'm not to good at identifying most Percoids, so I was hoping someone on here (perhaps an avid fisher?) might know what species it is?

When not stressed it is blue with red spots/stripes, and it has blue facial stripes. The fins are red-orange, and overall, the fish has a very noticeable violet sheen (which I thought was pretty weird when I saw it). I took some pictures with my phone camera (I have a crappy phone, so that means the camera is even crappier). You might not be able to tell from these pictures what it is.

Tonight when I get the fish home (he's living in a bucket right now because he's not compatible with my tiny rasboras and Cherry Shrimp), I'll take some more pictures with my crappy digital camera. Hopefully they will come out a bit better. Anyway, here are the pictures:

Full body shot.


My crappy phone's attempt to take a picture of the dorsal fin.


When I get him home he's going to have a 35 gallon tank all to himself, which I know he's probably going to outgrow in a year or less. Then I'll have to find a new home, which is too bad, because I really like this fish (and all Centrarchids).

Also, what's a good staple diet for him at this age? I'm guessing flakes now and pellets later?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

The most common lepome with such rostral markings is the green sunfish; not quite to Florida (though, if introduced, I suppose it could easily get a foothold in the native scenery), but very, VERY widespread.

Yeah, I was considering the Green Sunfish, but something about the face looked a bit off. I guess though, since it is such a widespread species, there could be some variation in facial structure. It definitely has the blue lines on the face that I have seen described as characteristic of the species.

If it is a Green Sunfish, I guess I should be thankful - it is one of the smaller Lepomis species. The average size, according to what I've been reading, is generally not over 15-18 cm, and the record fish was 30 cm (still not very large compared to a lot of other Centrarchids). I was certainly hoping it wasn't going to turn out to be the fourteen-inch monstrosity known as the Pumpkinseed.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

25 cm would already be stretching it, so yes, a small species indeed. Suns do tned to grow more compact with age, so perhaps that could account for the variations is head/body shape.

Here is the only halfway-decent picture I was able to get of the fish. It still hates me, so it always watches me and I can never get a photo of its sides. The Platy is in there due to some leaking issues I had with another tank.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Definitely not a pumpkinseed. It's probably a green sunfish. Feed it whatever it will eat right now. Usually takes them a couple weeks to start eating dry food with much interest but if he's been in a tank for awhile already it may not be a problem. Then feed him on cichlid pellets and fairly meaty foods. They also quite enjoy live crickets and shrimp as treats along with most any frozen or freeze dried food. Just remember these little guys are quite agressive once settled in. Mine went back to the pond for that reason. Their behavior rivals most of the common cichlids.

This guy already eats whatever I throw into the tank - flakes, shrimp pellets, frozen foods, even algae wafers. So far I haven't seen any aggression from him towards the other tankmates (two Platies, a Florida Flag Killie, and a small Goldfish who is going into the hottub-pond come spring). In fact, it seems that the goldfish is more the dominant one in the tank - I've seen it chase the sunfish around. It is a bit larger than the sunfish, however.

I wasn't expecting to have any other fish with the Sunfish, but my 25 gallon started leaking so I had to empty it and move those four fish into the empty 35 gallon I had.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.