[Bryanmc1988]

so i was looking around and came accross some of these fish i never seen before (Okefenokee Sunfish). Does anyone recall keeping them and are they like blue gills?

 

[lamiskool]

oooooooooh awesome looking fish, now im going to have to go look em up and see if I can keep some lol

huh....just googled em and there isnt much info on them, now I see why you made a post haha

 

[Kehy]

I personally haven't, but from what I've heard from people that do, they need live food, and are pretty much a native scarlet (lol) badis, roughly the same size as well. Goes without saying, but don't keep them with things that might much on them. They do best in species only tanks.

 

[Grah the great]

Elassoma will also take frozen, but it takes some training. Fortunately, 'baby ramshorn/pond snails' fall under the bracket of live food for pygmy sunfish, so if your tank has a good colony of those, they can help keep the pygmies fed while getting them to take frozen.

 

[Bryanmc1988]

from what i research i couldnt find much about them also... there is alot of "knock off" sites and some people trying to sell these but are not the same fish and trying to claim that it is just to make a few bucks. Sad cause these fish are really nice looking and guess what? MICRO fish !!! max is 1.25" i'll have to dig harder and find some cause i know a friend that does but he wont let them go... there was an article saying that this fish is rare and hard to find and i can see why.

Elassoma will also take frozen, but it takes some training. Fortunately, 'baby ramshorn/pond snails' fall under the bracket of live food for pygmy sunfish, so if your tank has a good colony of those, they can help keep the pygmies fed while getting them to take frozen.

so they will hunt nd eat baby ramshorn and pond snails? BINGO cause i have loads of them lol... now time to find some of these fish... =P

 

[Grah the great]

On a side note, there are several species of pygmy sunfish in the genus Elassoma. E. gilberti and E. okefenokee look like the fish shown above; E. evergladei is dark blue/black with blue spots rather than bars; E. zonatum is brown and black with perhaps some light blue speckling depending on the morph; and the remaining species rarely, if ever, show up in the hobby. Furthermore, pygmy sunfish males can control their colors, to the point of going from their blue coloration, to looking like a female, and turning back into the dark blue coloration within minutes or even seconds! Chances are the seller(s) you mention were not trying to dupe you, but were merely selling a different species or managed to spook the sunnies while photographing them (they are rather skittish).

 

[Bryanmc1988]

do you currently own any grah the great?

 

[PlantedRich]

Perch, bluegill, sunfish, and bream are all locally common names for fish but none of those are anything like the picture! Whoever came around to calling those sunfish must not get out in nature very often. He sure picked a name to create a lot of confusion!
Nice fish but why hang a totally common name like sunfish on it?

 

[sowNreap]

Check out NANFA (North America Native Fish) forums: http://forum.nanfa.org/. Someone there keeps these. Or maybe it's the E. gilberti .. been a while since I've been to the forum that I can't remember now.

You might find some answers & helpful info there.

 

[wicca27]

a friend of mine that lives in florida collects them wild and has been breeding them though out the winter to sell. i kinda like the captive breed better than wild caught idea myself.

 

[Bryanmc1988]

does he still sells them?

 

[lamiskool]

yep if anyone finds a good source for them please pm me and lmk ive got a few tanks that would be perfect for a pair!

 

[Bryanmc1988]

how much are you willing to pay for each? i can ask my friend he he want to sell some as he breeds them but wont give me a pair for free xD

 

[ua hua]

http://www.aquaculturestore.com/okefenokeepygmysunfish.html

 

[Grah the great]

do you currently own any grah the great?

Sadly, no...but I have considered owning some in the past and have done a lot of research on pygmy sunfish (who, as mentioned above, are not technically sunfish...they belong to a different family of fish).

 

[plaakapong]

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwusnative&1397628006

 

[Bryanmc1988]

thats not bad of a price for these fish but shipping added to the price of the fish just shoots it to far up on each fish ... only if there was some local that carry them =/

 

[BeastMaster]

I have a small colony of "Okies". The males are beautiful when they're doing the waggle dance to entice females. My Elassoma are now kept in an outdoor tank and daphnia are keeping them going. Tankmates are wild Neos. If your still looking for suppliers, got mine from St Augustine FL., shipped well. Good Luck. :bounce: