Originally know as the Arkansas Black Nosed Crappie, the Blacknosed Crappie is a strain of black Crappie first described in the White River basin of Arkansas. The blacknosed is actually a black Crappie and have a black stripe running from the top of their dorsal fin, down their nose and over their bottom lip. The black stripe is the result of a recessive gene like the albino channel catfish. These Blacknosed Crappie can be found in several States around the United States and are known to reproduce.

Hybrid Crappie are a cross between a black Crappie and a white Crappie. The resulting hybrid displays limited reproduction and increased growth. Although Hybrid Crappie are not sterile, they display limited recruitment (recruitment is a fancy term for young fish which make it to adult size and begin spawning). Early research indicates that hybrid Crappie populations are 50% male and 50% female and if stocked in a pond or lake by themselves they are capable of producing offspring.

In the 1990s MDWFP (Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks) and the University of Mississippi teamed up to create a sterile Crappie that would not overpopulate a small impoundment. The result was the Magnolia Crappie. This Crappie is a cross between the female white Crappie and the male blackstriped (blacknosed) black Crappie. The blackstriped Crappie has a dark stripe from the dorsal fin down the top of the head and mouth to the throat. This is a naturally occurring color variation. The offspring retain this blackstripe making it easy for biologists to monitor the population after stocking. Fertilized eggs are pressure shocked to induce triploidy which causes sterility. Triploid fish have three sets of chromosomes instead of the normal two sets (diploid). Because this “Magnolia” Crappie cannot reproduce they may put more energy into growth and may grow larger than a normal fish in a similar environment.