Redear Sunfish

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: algae or phytoplankton; aquatic or other vascular plants; detritus or unidentified plant material; invertebrates or larval fish. These are broad categories, not a claim that every individual consumes every example in a category.

Reported feeding positions include bottom feeding and surface or water-column feeding. The compilation combines published observations; diets can vary with age, locality, and available food.

Habitat preferences

Reported habitat associations include medium to large rivers, streams and small rivers, creeks, still-water habitats.

The source records associations with muck, clay or silt, sand, vegetation. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.

Reproduction and parental care

The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 2 years. Its maturity field summarizes mean, median, or modal estimates, usually for females; male estimates can be used when female data are unavailable. It is not a fixed age at which every fish first breeds.

Batch or serial spawning has been reported somewhere in the species’ range. This does not establish the same spawning pattern for every population.

Recorded spawning months are May, Jun, Jul, Aug for the source’s reporting region (NC). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.

The reproductive-guild classification includes guarding eggs or young at a spawning substrate or nest.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 43.2 centimetres. Some entries use an estimated asymptotic length; this value should not be treated as a certified record catch.

Recorded longevity in the compilation is 5 years. Wild observations were preferred, but captive records were accepted where wild records were unavailable, and unspecified records were assumed wild. The value is not a guaranteed wild lifespan or an aquarium life expectancy.

Identification and appearance

Deep-bodied, olive colored, with darker spots and flecks of red, and occasionally vertical bars along the sides. The hind end of the gill flap is black with a white border and has a red spot on the tip (hence its name). The chest color is yellowish to cream colored.The mouth is small and when closed barely reaches only to the front margin of the eye. The pectoral fins are long and more pointed than those of other sunfish; the first dorsal fin contains 10 sharp spines, followed by 10 to 12 rays. Moyle (1976); Hubbs et al. (1991); Page and Burr (1991); Etnier and Starnes (1993). Lepomis microlophus is composed of two unnamed subspecies; one in Florida, Georgia, and southern Alabama, the other throughout the rest of its range. The two subspecies may no longer be distinguishable due to interbreeding caused by stocking programs (Page and Burr 1991).

Native range

The native range for this species is Atlantic coast of North America (USEPA 2008). Page and Burr (1991) report the range as Atlantic and Gulf Slope drainages from about the Savannah River, South Carolina, to the Nueces River, Texas; north in the Mississippi River basin to southern Indiana and Illinois. Rohde et al. (2009) also conclude that the native range includes the Savannah River in Georgia and extends south through Florida and west to the Rio Grande River, and north in the Mississippi River Valley to southern Illinois and Indiana. Jenkins and Burkhead (1994) cite Bailey (1938) in reporting that the native range on the Atlantic slope may not be any farther north than Georgia.

Habitat and ecology

The redear sunfish is a molluscivorous species of the Centrarchid family. It lives in vegetated littoral zones of small to large lakes, marshes, and reservoirs, and streams or rivers with sluggish to slow-moving flow (French and Morgan 1995). It prefers the deeper waters of warm ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and swamps, and favors clear water with abundant vegetation and other cover with a substrate of mud or sand (IUCN Redlist, 2013). This species often nests in colonies on the bottom of shallow areas (IUCN Redlist, 2013).

Introduction history

Intentional stocking for sportfishing. In Iowa, fish found in interior streams are believed to be escapes from stocked lakes (Harlan et al. 1987). The species' recent (1991) discovery in Vermont is somewhat of a mystery. It appears the most likely means of introduction there is stock contamination of privately stocked Micropterus (Whittier and Hartel 1997).

Ecological impacts

Hybridizes with other Lepomis species (Scribner et al. 2001).