PlanetCatfish.com

Hi All! I've been catching feeder fish from one of my lakes, aiming at guppies but got some by-catches. Please help me ID them - 3 kinds (two may or may not be the same).

Here is first:

This one is the same but twice bigger, not that this horrible pic is of much/any use

This is the second kind that may be the same as the first but younger... or may not be...

More of the second kind:

The third is a cichlid:

More of the cichlid:

the third one looks like a red terror(festae) or a mayan cichlid also called false red terror.

First one looks like a smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) to me.

festae is unlikely:

a they die in cold water uropthalmus will still thrive in
b young festae show a truncated bar pattern, basically a row of squares. They keep this pattrern until 12 cm (5 inches) or more.

Therefore I'm very certain it is uropthalmus

The second one might be a young bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus). It's certainly a sunfish of some sort.

The first 4 photos appear to be a Lepomis gibbosus (pumpkinseed) to me. I'm going to have to agree that the 3rd one looks like a festae. Looks like you've got some non-native species in your lake.

Thanks so much, guys! The fishes in the first 4 photos appear to eat the guppies and ignore flakes and pellets I offer. They almost doubled in size from 1.5" TL to 3" TL in 1 week - much easier to catch guppies in a 55 gal than in 1.5-acre lake, I guess. The second kind, the sunfish (~ a dozen of them), and the cichlid taste the flakes and pellets and appear to start developing a liking to them... because there is nothing else to eat.

Yes, non-natives abound everywhere. Especially visible is tilapia in big numbers and sizes just everywhere... and another big stripey cichlid - I think what I caught is their baby. I see plecos too plenty.

Cichlasoma urophthalmus sure is a pretty fish.


My uncle, who lives near Pompano Beach, has caught both Cichlasoma urophthalmus and Cichlasoma festae in the lakes near him. They also have plenty of Cichla ocellaris.

Cichla ocellaris = Butterfly peacock bass. How big were the ones your uncle caught?

Wiki: Cichla ocellaris, sometimes known as the butterfly peacock bass ("peacock bass" is also used for some of its relatives), is a very large species of cichlid from South America, and a prized game fish. It reaches 74 centimetres (29 in) in length. It is native to the Marowijne and Essequibo drainages in the Guianas, and the Branco River in Brazil. It has also been introduced to regions outside its natural range (e.g., Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico), but some uncertainty exists over the exact identity, and at least some of the introductions may involve another Cichla species or hybrids. It is frequently confused with C. monoculus.