| Redear sunfish Temporal range:Middle Miocene to Recent | |
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Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Centrarchiformes |
| Family: | Centrarchidae |
| Genus: | Lepomis |
| Species: | L. microlophus |
| Binomial name | |
| Lepomis microlophus (Günther, 1859) | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
Pomotis microlophusGünther, 1859 | |
Theredear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus), also known as theshellcracker,Georgia bream,cherry gill,chinquapin,improved bream, andsun perch, is afreshwater fish in the familyCentrarchidae and is native to the southeasternUnited States. Due to its popularity as asport fish, it has been widelyintroduced acrossNorth America.
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Redear sunfish generally resemblebluegill except for coloration and somewhat larger maximum size. The redear sunfish also has faint vertical bars traveling downwards from its dorsal.[3] It is dark-colored dorsally and yellow-green ventrally. Unlike bluegill, the male has a cherry-red edge on itsoperculum; females have orange coloration in this area. The adult fish are between 20 and 24 cm (7.9 and 9.4 in) in length. Max length is 43.2 cm (17.0 in), compared to a maximum of about 40 cm (16 in) for the bluegill. Redear sunfish on average reach about 0.45 kg (0.99 lb), also larger than the average bluegill.[4]
Redear sunfish arenative to the southeastern United States. They range fromNorth Carolina toFlorida, west to southernIllinois andMissouri, and south to theRio Grande drainage inTexas.[5] However, this fish has been widely introduced to other locations such as the states ofOhio andArizona.[6]
In the wild, redear sunfish inhabit warm, quiet waters of lakes, ponds, streams, and reservoirs. They prefer to be near logs and vegetation, and tend to congregate in groups around these features. This sunfish is also located in many freshwater marsh wetlands.[citation needed]
The favorite food of this sunfish is snails, which it obtains by cracking their shells, hence this feisty gamefish's common name: shellcracker. These fish meander along lakebeds, seeking and cracking open snails and other shelled creatures. VanderKooyet al. (2000) observed that largeL. microlophus predominantly focus on hard-shelled prey such asostracods,hydrobiid snails and mussels throughout the entire year. In the same field investigation, it was observed that smaller fish tended to also consumezooplankton,amphipods,chironomid andceratopongonid larvae andcladocerans, with varied distributions depending on the season.[7][8] They are also believed to feed onalgae, aquaticworms,[9]copepoda,[9]midgelarvae,ephemeropteran andodonata nymphs,crayfish, small fish, and fish eggs.[citation needed] Redear sunfish have thickpharyngeal teeth which allow them to crunchexoskeletons. They are even capable of opening smallclams.[citation needed] The specialization of this species for the deep-water, mollusk-feeding niche allows it to be introduced to lakes without the risk of competition with fish that prefer shallower water or surface-feeding. In recent years, the stocking of redear has found new allies due to the fish's ability to eatquagga mussels, a prominentinvasive species in many freshwater drainages.[10]
During spawning, males congregate and create nests close together in colonies, and females visit to lay eggs. The redear sunfish may occasionallyhybridize with other sunfish species.[11]
The redear sunfish is the first-known species ofCentrarchidae based onfossil records, as old as 16.3 million years, dating back to theMiddle Miocene.[12][verification needed]
Redear sunfish is a popularpanfish amongrecreational anglers. TheIGFA all-tackle world record for the species stands at 2.83 kg (6 lb 4 oz) caught in 2021 fromLake Havasu inArizona.[13]
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