The Gulf Coast pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma gilberti'', is a species of pygmy sunfish

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States. This species can reach in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

Etymology

The fish is named in honor of Carter R. Gilbert (1930-2022), who was the Curator of Fishes at the

Florida Museum of Natural History The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville. The main pub ...

from 1961 to 1998, because of his many contributions to the study of North American fishes. ''Elassoma gilberti'' is closely related to ''E. okefenokee'', and the two species are nearly indistinguishable in appearance. ''E. gilberti'' in general has four preopercular canal pores, while ''E. okefenokee'' on average has three. The average number of anal fin rays is seven in ''E. gilberti'' and eight in ''E. okefenokee''. The female ''E. gilberti'' often expresses a blue patch of color behind her eye, while the ''E. okefenokee'' does not.

Range and ecology

This species occurs in northwestern Florida and southwestern Georgia in the lower Suwannee River drainage and other Gulf of Mexico drainages from the

Waccasassa River The Waccasassa River is a small, isolated river in Levy County, Florida, flowing through the Gulf Hammock (wetlands), Gulf Hammock wetlands and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is long, and has a drainage basin of . Three-quarters of ...

west to Choctawhatchee Bay. They are usually found in slackwater environments, among dense aquatic vegetation and leaf litter, where they feed mainly on tiny insects, crustaceans, and worms.

Spawning

''Elassoma gilberti'' will breed in a wide range of water conditions, and spawning has been confirmed in both 0 DH and 20 DH water. Males require a region of dense living or artificial rooted aquatic plants to claim as territory to woo females in to spawn. Each spawning male claims about a cubic foot of volume as his territory. The males spend their time patrolling around their territories and dancing to catch the females' attention. When dancing, they wiggle their dorsal, anal, and caudal fins to show off their bright blue iridescence. Then, suddenly, they do a full stop, holding completely still for a few seconds with no visible motion. After the pause, they continue dancing again, often moving up and down in their eagerness to woo the female into their respective clumps of dense plants. Females swim in and out of the males' territories to spawn. The male then guards the spawn site until the eggs hatch, chasing females and other males away. It takes about three to four days for the eggs to hatch. At this point, the male stops protecting the spawn site and becomes receptive to spawning again.