Longear Sunfish, Lepomis megalotis
Longear Sunfish, Lepomis megalotis, Juvenile. Fish caught from Wildcat Creek in Lafayette, Indiana, July 2025. Length: 13 cm (5.1 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Darren Wong, Fremont, California.
The Longear Sunfish, Lepomis megalotis, is a member of the Sunfish or Centrarchidae Family, and is known in Mexico as mojarra gigante. Globally, there are twenty species in the Lepomis Genus, of which seven are found in the streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds of Mexico’s freshwater systems. Note: this species has historically been known as the Longear Sunfish. In 2021 the widely distributed Longear Sunfish was separated into seven separate species with the Longear Sunfish retained for this species..
The Longear Sunfish has a small stocky body with a symmetrical profile that has a depth that is 37% to 41% of standard length. They have a unique elongated operculum flap that is black with a white margin that gives rise to their common name. They are very colorful, having an olive to rusty brown back, bright orange bellies, and vermiculate blue-green bars on the sides of their head. Breeding males are dark red dorsally and bright orange, marbled, to blue spotted ventrally. Their eyes are unique with an iridescent turquoise crest outlining the ventral curvature with a dark red iris. Their pectoral fins are orange-red and the pelvic fins are blue-black. They have a small mouth that ends before the eyes and lacks palatine teeth. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 9 or 10 rays; their caudal fin is emarginate; their dorsal fin has 10 to 12 spines and 10 to 12 rays; and, their pectoral fins are short and rounded, with 13 or 14 rays. Their cheeks have five or six rows of scales.
The Longear Sunfish inhabits rocky and sandy waters of headwaters, streams, and small and medium-sized rivers, as well as ponds, bays, lakes, and reservoirs. They are usually found near vegetation and tend to be absent from rapidily moving and and deeper waters. They reach a maximum of 24 cm (9.4 inches) in length and 790 grams (1 lb 12 oz in weight). As of December 1, 2025, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 790 g (1 lb 12 oz) with the fish caught in Elephant Butte lake, New Mexico, May 1985. Longear Sunfish are diurnal being inactive at night and are primarily carnivorous that feed on aquatic insects, small crustaceans, fish eggs, and small fish. In turn they are preyed upon by many larger carnivorous fish including numerous basses and wading birds, relying heavily on vegetation for protection. Reproduction is oviparous with colonial nest with external fertilization and occurs within gravel substate with males building shallow, saucer-shaped nests and guard the eggs until they hatch. Each female will deposit between 140 and 4,000 eggs annually. Sexual maturity is reached in two or three years. They have life spans of up to six years.
The Longear Sunfish is a native to the freshwater systems of the Rio Grande, Conchos and Salado rivers in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. They have been widely introduced with fish sourced from the United States and have thrived in some reservoirs within the States of Chihuahua and Coahuila. In Mexico they are found in deeper ponds and rivers than in the United States. They can reside in large bodies of water and different water types making them more resilient and more widely distributed than most sunfishes.
The Longear Sunfish can be easily confused with the closely related Dollar Sunfish, Lepomis marginatus (less cheek scale rows, fewer pectoral fin rays and by the slope of the opercular flap, which is distinctly upward). They are separated from the six other newly introduced (formerly all Longear Sunfish) primarily by their geographic locations with only minor differences in their coloration patterns and body shapes observable.
From a conservation perspective the Longear Sunfish is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. In Mexico they are actively pursued as a game fish. They are especially intolerant of turbid and fast moving waters and their long-term survival can be adversely affected by human development disrupting aquatic vegetation from run off and chemical pollution from agriculture. The Longear Sunfish is considered to be an important component of the ecosystems.