What kind of fish is this?

[moguy1973]

My wife caught this out of my in laws pond today.  The pond has a lot of green sunfish in it but I have never seen one with these kinds of markings.  I'm guessing that is what it is but has anyone seen one with those stripes before?

[BilletHead]

Green sunfish but the markings are cool, leutistic maybe? Yea i am not sure how to spell that word .

BilletHead

[MOPanfisher]

Might just be partly in the shade for the pic but looks like a yellow perch on the front half and greenie on the back half.

[Al Agnew]

It is a green sunfish; I've caught a lot of them out of Big River with that kind of "hyperpigmentation", though I can only remember a couple of them where it was that striking.  Most that I've caught have had solid black tails and body up to about the rear of the dorsal and anal fins, and the rest of the body colored normally.

I once asked a biologist about it, but I was just describing it, not showing him pictures.  I'm not sure he quite understood my description, but he said that he wasn't sure but guessed it might have something to do with heavy metal contamination, given that the fish were caught on Big River below the old lead mining area.  I always thought it was more likely a genetic thing.  But then I caught a couple of rock bass with the same black tail portions of their bodies, and even one smallmouth with a black tail.  However, I caught one of the rock bass and the smallmouth on another stream that was fairly near by but not a tributary of Big River.  Still, that makes it sound like something environmental causing it rather than green sunfish genetics.  

I just spent about 20 minutes on a Google search about it, and found nothing.  So I guess it's still a mystery.

[mjk86]

I always get excited for the "what kind of fish is this?" Thread.  That's a neat little fish, and and eveven cooler pond! Look at that water!

[moguy1973]

We did catch another smaller one tonight that was regular green sunfish color for the front half and then had very distinct stripes from the dorsal fin back and even on its tail.  

 

The previous owners of their place had this pond treated with what I'm assuming was copper sulfate to control the moss and weeds, hence the bluish-green hue to the water.  It's really clear too with about 5-6' of clarity.  What's weird is their neighbors have a pond of similar size and theirs is as muddy as the Mississippi. Theirs is the pond on the left. 

[Ham]

Green Sunfish. Jacked up colors.

[Johnsfolly]

Al has me thinking about whether the copper sulfate may be a partial cause of the coloration of this fish. Pretty cool looking fish.

[fishinwrench]

What causes piebald deer ?   I kinda figured that the Fawn spots took over, so instead of the spots fading they expanded.  

[Johnsfolly]

A piebald deer has leucism where there is a defect in localized areas of cells that cannot produce any pigmentation, which results in the "pied" splotches of white hair or skin all over the animal. White tigers are another example. Albinos are slightly different in that they cannot produce melanin, but can produce some color with some albinos being pale yellow instead of white.