#microfishing

Unfortunately, there were a lot of Asian shore crabs (smaller crab above) which sucks because they’re invasive. A lot of bristle worms as well!

A delightfully chubby Least Killifish female and a very cute "dalmatian" melanistic Mosquitofish male, both caught with a net in the retention pond at work.

The shocked little faces fish make when you catch them.

^a male Blue-spotted sunfish, rather stressed after capture 

While for most North Americans, The Word “sunfish” may bring up images of a day spent with a line and bobber as a child, or perhaps a summer fish fry, among local fish clubs and around the world, these colorful fishes are also popular in the aquarium.

I have heard of their popularity as species for “North American biotopes”, especially in Germany, so here’s a quick guide to one of my personal favorite sunfish species, the little blue-spotted sunfish.

Unlike other sunfish species like the bluegill, pumpkinseed, and redbreast the blue spotted sunfish stays rather small, reaching its adult (spawning) size at about 7cm max. I could see a pair of these fish living quite happily in a 25 to 30 gallon tank.

The Habitat of this species regularly freezes over, and is capable of surviving rather high water temperatures and low oxygen areas as well. 

Unlike other fish in it’s habitat (Grass pickerel, eastern mosquitofish, pumpkinseed sunfish, largemouth bass) the blue spotted sunfish is not skittish when approached, and seems to prefer holding still when in danger.

While I have observed little of this species’s breeding and courtship, it seems to lay it’s eggs in shallow, rather warm, silt-bottomed algae filled waters out of reach of larger predatory fishes that live alongside it.

I have seen blue spotted sunfish feeding on “scuds”, aquatic insect larvae and aquatic worms.

When not breeding, The blue spotted sunfish may spend its time in its breeding habitat, or in tangles of overhanging branches or hovering above rocky expanses of flat rocks in loose schools. All of the blue spotted sunfish’s habitats are composed of slow-moving, water with some vegetation (spatterdock, American vallisneria and hornwort) This species is notably absent from faster-flowing waters with little vegetation that Harbors many other sunfish species.

Water parameters of breeding habitat:

pH: 7.5

GH (ppm): 120

KH (ppm): 40

Nitrate (ppm): 5.0

Nitrite: Undetected 

Ammonia: Undetected 

Habitat:

A freshly caught male:

A female: