sunfish family

Comment

Comment by James Wilson on May 1, 2014 at 3:39pm

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

Comment by Ben Seay on May 1, 2014 at 1:41pm

I don't see Roanoke Bass. It is considered a separate species although it looks similar to a Rock Bass. You will not catch these unless you are fishing in a few select rivers in Virginia and North Carolina. Here is one I caught:

Comment by Tony Livingston on May 1, 2014 at 9:07am

Don't forget about the subspecies......coppernose bluegills, handpainted bluegills, etc.

Comment by JBplusThuy on May 1, 2014 at 8:38am

Of course, that should read, "three differences." Contrary to the vicious rumor, I can count ;-)

Comment by JBplusThuy on May 1, 2014 at 8:37am

Jeff's shirt has a good chart :)

http://bigbluegill.com/photo/crappie-t-shirt/prev?context=user

Two differences between his shirt and this picture are:

- The shirt has Sacramento perch, a fish native to California, Nevada, southern Oregon. Not sure if its range extends farther than that

- It shows pumpkinseed and redear as separate species, which is my understanding as well.

- His shirt does not have the orange-spotted sunfish shown in the picture above

So, the number of North American sunfish is likely to be at least 13 (his shirt, plus orange-spotted) and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some that appear in neither.

Fun fact: the oldest known sunfish fossils, at 13-16 million years, were found in Nebraska and belong to the shellcracker (source: Wikipedia).

This Wikipedia article lists 13 species, two of which (dollar and redspotted) are in neither your chart nor on Jeff's shirt, so - assuming no cases of one species with two names - there may be at least 15.

Does anyone know of any others not in any of these sources?

Jonathan