Sunfish Research Paper

If you take sunfish out of their natural habit/original tank and change its diet than the fish will become stress leading it to not to grow/eat. The sunfish is a small fish that will reach the length oh 6 inches. It has smooth scales and a round caudal. Food studies show that sunfish feed primarily on insects and crusteaceans. The fish range from two to eight years old. It favors acid waters associated with cedar swamps and Pine Barrens areas, and it is also found in standing water with a heavy growth of aquatic plants. A sudden change in environment is extremely stressful for a fish’s health. Stress is any condition that causes physical or mental discomfort that results in the release of stress-related hormones or results in specific physiological responses. Stress can be physical, psychological, or environmental. Stress can either be short and sudden, or long and chronic. Mild, short-term stress has few serious health effects, but long-term stress or severe, short-term stress

Many fish can live on minimal nutrition with old or stale flake foods, but this poor nutrition is a chronic stress. A variety of well-preserved dry foods as well as freeze-dried, fresh, and frozen foods specifically designed for individual species are necessary to prevent chronic nutritional stress. The size, metabolic rate, temperature of the fish’s environment is extremely important to the amount of food a fish eats .

Smaller fishes generally have a higher metabolic rate than large fishes so that means the small fishes generally eat proportionately more. Some researchers have calculated food intake for some species. In one study, bluegill ate between 1% and 35% of their body weight in food per week, depending on water