Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) is a freshwater, brackish species recorded in the United States. It is found at depths of 0–41 m.
Scientific name: Lepomis gibbosus · Water: Freshwater, Brackish
Size: up to 40 cm
The pumpkinseed is a benthopelagic centrarchid that inhabits vegetated lakes and ponds as well as the quiet pools of creeks and small rivers, and it is recorded from the surface down to 41 m; it also enters brackish water. It feeds on small fishes and other vertebrates as well as fish eggs, and adults rarely form schools but occur in pairs or loose aggregations of three to four individuals, while the young aggregate in fairly large schools. Introduced in Europe, it avoids swift water and occurs in estuaries with a salinity of up to 18.2 parts per thousand, where it is reported to prey on a wide variety of invertebrates; it is considered an undesirable catch. Its range is North America, from New Brunswick in Canada south to the Savannah River in Georgia, and the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and upper Mississippi River basins from Quebec west to south-eastern Manitoba and North Dakota and south to northern Kentucky and Missouri, and it has been introduced to Pacific drainages. Maximum length is about 40 cm total length, commonly about 9.9 cm, and it can live 12 years. It is taken in subsistence fisheries, is a gamefish and is a commercial aquarium fish. Fishing vulnerability is moderate to high at 49 of 100 and resilience low. IUCN lists it as least concern.
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