Redspotted Sunfish, Lepomis miniatus

Redspotted Sunfish, Lepomis miniatus, Juvenile. Fish caught from the Black River, Poplar Bluff, Missouri, July 2020. Length: 9.3 cm (3.7 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Redspotted Sunfish, Lepomis miniatus, Juvenile. Fish caught from with the Frenchman’s Bend of the Bayou DeSlard, Monroe, Louisana, June 2021. Length: 10.8 cm (4.3 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Redspotted Sunfish, Lepomis miniatus. Fish caught from the Guadalupe River, New Braunfels, Texas, August 2018. Length: 13.6 cm (5.4 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Redspotted Sunfish, Lepomis miniatus. Fish caught from the Guadalupe River, New Braunfels, Texas, August 2018. Length: 16 cm (6.4 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

The Redspotted Sunfish, Lepomis miniatus, is a member of the Sunfish or Centrarchidae Family, and is known in Mexico that is also known as the stumpknocker and in Mexico as pez luna de manchas rojas. Globally, there are twenty species in the genus Lepomis, of which seven are found in the streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds of Mexico’s freshwater systems.

The Redspotted Sunfish as a small thick body with a symmetrical profile that has a depth that is 38% to 42% of standard length. They are sexually dimorphic with adult males having red to purplish square spots on their sides that form irregular rows. The corresponding spots in females are yellow. Their back is dark brown to olive, the belly reddish-orange, their cheeks have brown spots and they have a black spot on the gill covers that has a narrow white or reddish boarder. Their fins are a uniform silvery, creamy, pinkish, or white narrow margins. Their eyes are unique with an iridescent turquoise crest outlinging the ventral curvature that is otherwise dark red iris. Breeding males have rows of spots below the lateral line to the belly that resemble a chain of rough triangles anteriorly directed, and red orange pigment covering the breast, belly, and dorsal margin of the gill cover tab. They have a moderately sized mouth with the upper jaw reaching mid-eye equipped with palatine teeth. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 9 or 10 rays; their caudal fin is emarginate; their dorsal fin has 9 to 11 spines and 9 to 12 rays; and, their pectoral fins are short and rounded, not reaching past the front of the eye, with 12 or 13 rays. They have long thin gill rakers. They are covered with ctenoid scales. Their lateral line is incomplete.

The Redspotted Sunfish is a demersal, temperate, fresh-water species that is found in swamps, sloughs, bottomland lakes, pools of creeks and small to medium rivers, and the less brackish portions of coastal estuaries normally in quiet or moderately flowing waters with heavy vegetation or other cover with mud or sand substrate. They reach a maximum of 16 cm (6.4 inches) in length. Juvenile Redspots primarily consume benthic zooplankton and with maturity transition to macrofauna including small crustaceans and midges with large fish also consuming mud crabs and sponges. In turn they are preyed upon by many larger carnivorous fish including numerous basses. They rely on vegetation for protection. Reproduction is oviparous and involves an elaborate courtship. They are solitary nesters that build nests in shallow water close to shore within sand and gravel substrate and vigorously defended. Each female, based on size, will deposit between 200 and 2,000 eggs into the nest. Fertilization is external. They are known to hybridize with Bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus. They have life spans of up to six years. The Redspotted Sunfish is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

The Redspotted Sunfish is a native to the freshwater systems of the Rio Grande River of northern mainland Mexico within the States of Chihuahua and Coahuila.

The Redspotted Sunfish can be easily confused with the Bantam Sunfish, Lepomis symmetricus (complete lateral line, dark spot on the gill cover), the Green Sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus (larger mouth, dark spot at the rear of the dorsal fin), and the Spotted Sunfish, Lepomis punctatus (dark spots at the base of its scales).

From a conservation perspective the Redspotted Sunfish is current considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are too small in stature to be of interest to most. However, in some regions their populations are in decline and their long-term viability is threatened by human development that has destroyed native aquatic vegetation habitats, and reduced the clarity of native streams. They are also prone to eradication by the introduction of the highly invasive Rio Grande Cichlid, Herichthys cyanoguttatus, and Nile Tilapia, Orechromis niloticus, into many of their regions.