Re: NANFA-- more sunfish spawning [long]

R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Tue, 12 Feb 2002 18:07:38 -0600

Your pond is plenty large to spawn pumpkinseeds. It is possible that two
things may have kept it from happening. Sometimes they need to be quite
large to spawn, although I have seen 4 - 5 inch of both sexes spawning. You
also should have some where that the sun hits the water for a while. Most of
my sunfish and those I see in the wild nest in open area. There are
exceptions, like warmouth, but they usually prefer the shade of aquatic
things like plants or a stump. They are readily sexed as well, since males
have larger ears, more vibrant colors. The females should be relativly drab
from the same area and in the spring will be swelled with eggs making the
stomach look well rounded and lighter colored. Most sunfish in artificial
ponds will keep spawning all season if conditions are right. Heat usually is
not a problem, but any real cold snaps will turn them off, even making them
abandon eggs or fry. Last spring was bad here , with it never really
coming, and then off and on cold until July, but when July hit with weeks on
end of 90 degree weather the fish more than made up for the early
disruptions. I had spawning right up until October, but most of those fry
were to small and became food for other fish that had been lucky enough to
have hatched much earlier in the summer.

Ray

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