Hybrid crappies more common than you think

[taxi1]

You may have caught a natural hybrid of a black and white crappie and didn't realize it. Once I started looking, as a taxidermist, it appears almost all of the really large crappies I have taken in (17 to 21 inches) where natural hybrids.

Here's an interesting publication about them. Geared for aquaculture but still interesting.

https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/277



I'm going to produce these on my fish farm this coming spring.  Hatched black crappies last time, but performance -- even trained on artificial feed -- was only so so.

[slipperybob]

Yea, I am pretty sure I caught lots of black crappie that were hybrids.  I used to just thought, oh different breed.  These are bigger tail fins for stronger river current...more streamlined body shape.  Just hybrids.

[SHaRPS]

So whats the real giveaway between the hybrid and black crappie because stripes are tough to see on that hybrid.

[Chute82]

Do the hybrid crappies Breed?  Hybrid strippers the state stock can’t but the state sterilized them..  just wondering

[taxi1]

So whats the real giveaway between the hybrid and black crappie because stripes are tough to see on that hybrid.

Hybrid doesn't have the distinct bar pattern of the white crappie. At the same time the speckling pattern is not as pronounced as in a black crappie.

Body shape is intermediate between a white and black. A white crappie has a more elongated body than a black crappie especially forward of the dorsal fin.

I've seen hybrids that had 7 dorsal spines, but some that had only 6 like in a white crappie but definitely did not look like a white crappie.

As the publication says though, only definite way to tell them apart is by DNA. 

[taxi1]

Do the hybrid crappies Breed? ...

According to one source they are not sterile but the first generation (F1) doesn't recruit well (not a lot of offspring) which makes them a possible candidate for ponds vs. regular crappies that can overproduce in small ponds and stunt. However you still need a good bass and bluegill population to keep them in check.

More good reading: (BTW JMMalone and son was the hatchery that first came up with triploid grass carp. I know a biologist down there that was experimenting with triploid crappie but last I heard it wan't really that successful).

http://www.jmmaloneandson.com/hybrid-crappie.html

and information from this fish farm:

https://www.overtonfisheries.com/Stocker-Fish/Sport-Fish/Hybrid-Crappie

[taxi1]

Do the hybrid crappies Breed?  Hybrid strippers the state stock can’t but the state sterilized them..  just wondering

Actually the state does not sterilize hybrid stripers. Here in their own words is what they say about the fecundity (fertility)  of hybrid stripers:

Hybrid striped bass, like many hybrids, experience great difficulty reproducing naturally. Eggs and sperm produced by hybrids are usually weak or improperly formed. ... For this reason, hybrids are considered “functionally sterile,” and their populations are totally dependent on repeated stockings.


https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3386.htm

I mounted a hybrid striper a while back from -- I believe Monroe reservoir -- that was packed with eggs. However how viable they were is another question. Used to know a fish farmer/dentist that raised hybrid stripers in cages in a gravel pit. Said he was sure he was getting SOME reproduction.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

I'm going to produce these on my fish farm this coming spring.  Hatched black crappies last time, but performance -- even trained on artificial feed -- was only so so.

I know that when the DNR here stocks crappie that sometimes one breed does really well and the other doesn't. Once they know what kinda of crappie does better in a body of water they will stock that kind.

[taxi1]

I know that when the DNR here stocks crappie that sometimes one breed does really well and the other doesn't. Once they know what kinda of crappie does better in a body of water they will stock that kind.

Interesting. I know in my state of Indiana, the blacks seem to predominate in the natural waters with some whites mixed in if there is a river system connected. Further south the whites seem to predominate the reservoirs. It's said the whites tolerate turbid water better than the blacks which could explain why they are found in the reservoirs. Also the fact that the reservoirs start out as stocks from rivers?