B&W Sunfish ID #5
- Thread starter sandtiger
- Start date
Wow! I think this is Redspotted Sunfish because of its white edges around the fins and the right shape on ear. No white edges around the ears, only on sides of the ear. However its may to be Spotted sunfish as its my second guess.
Gosh, that's a tough one. Let's see...
Three anal fin spines, so it's Lepomis or Enneacanthus.
Bilobed caudal fin, so it's Lepomis.
Short rounded pectoral, which rules out bluegill, p'seed, o-spot, and shellcracker.
Lateral line scales about 35 (hard to count, though) and mouth pretty large, so it's not a bantam, longear, dollar, spotted, or redspotted.
That brings us down to warmouth, green, and redbreast. The tall body, long black opercular tab, and lack of facial markings rule out warmouth and green, so...
It's a redbreast (Lepomis auritus)!
Isn't it?
I have to admit I totally missed the northern longear one, so...yeah.
Three anal fin spines, so it's Lepomis or Enneacanthus.
Bilobed caudal fin, so it's Lepomis.
Short rounded pectoral, which rules out bluegill, p'seed, o-spot, and shellcracker.
Lateral line scales about 35 (hard to count, though) and mouth pretty large, so it's not a bantam, longear, dollar, spotted, or redspotted.
That brings us down to warmouth, green, and redbreast. The tall body, long black opercular tab, and lack of facial markings rule out warmouth and green, so...
It's a redbreast (Lepomis auritus)!
Isn't it?
I have to admit I totally missed the northern longear one, so...yeah.
I dont think its redbreast because this fish looks like a mature male which it should have really long ear.
You really shouldn't have used this fish. It's from such a narrow intergrade zone; it's really not fair. Beside that, the key has errors I've just noticed about fin color (has factual statements reversed) and I'm guessing this is a key for species present in Alabama only.