Green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) is a freshwater species recorded in the United States.
Scientific name: Lepomis cyanellus · Water: Freshwater
Size: up to 31 cm
The green sunfish is a benthopelagic centrarchid whose adults inhabit the quiet pools and backwaters of sluggish streams, lakes and ponds, often near vegetation. Juveniles feed on immature insects and microcrustaceans, and it is a nest spawner. Maximum length is about 31 cm total length, commonly about 20 cm, and it can live nine years. It is a commercial species, a commercial aquaculture species and a gamefish. Fishing vulnerability is low to moderate at 33 of 100 and resilience medium. IUCN lists it as least concern.
It is blue-green over the back and sides with yellow-flecked, bony-ridged (ctenoid) scales and yellow on the ventral surface, and the gill covers and the sides of the head carry broken bright blue stripes that lead some people to mistake it for a bluegill. Dark spots sit near the back end of the dorsal fin, at the base of the anal fin and on the opercular flap, and the margins of the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin, the caudal fin, the ventral fins and the anal fin are orange or yellow, most pronounced in breeding individuals. It has a relatively large mouth and a long snout that reaches back to beneath the middle of the eye; the pectoral fins are short and rounded with 13 to 15 rays, the dorsal fin has about 10 spines followed by 10 to 12 rays, and the tail is homocercal. The maximum recorded weight is 960 g. Telling sunfish species apart is sometimes difficult because they hybridise frequently. It prefers sluggish backwaters, lakes and ponds over gravel, sand or bedrock, can be found in very muddy water and tolerates poor water conditions, and it spends its time hiding around rocks, submerged logs and other cover.
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