The banded sunfish (''Enneacanthus obesus'') is a

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Centrarchidae Centrarchidae, better known as sunfishes, is a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes (formerly belonging to the deprecated order Centrarchiformes), native only to North America. There are eight universally i ...

. They can grow to 2–3 inches long. They are native to North America.

Description

The banded sunfish is similar to the blackbanded sunfish and has a very compressed and deep body. Its sides are iridescent and dark colored. There are dark bands on its side and nuptial males and females will develop blue specks on their bodies. Its mouth is upturned and its pectoral and tail fins are rounded. It grows to an approximate length of 9.5 cm.

Distribution

The banded sunfish is found in the Atlantic coastal drainages of North America from southern Maine south to central Florida and along the

Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...

slope as far west as the

Perdido River Perdido River, historically Rio Perdido (1763), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. states of Alabama and Florida; the Perdido, a desig ...

drainage in Alabama.

Habitat

The banded sunfish is found in small ponds and backwaters of creeks to small and large rivers and boggy brooks over sand or mud in sluggish, acidic, heavily vegetated waters.

Diet

The banded sunfish feeds upon aquatic insects and microcrustacean.

Reproduction

Spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...

occurs from April through July. They can spawn when they become one year old. The male will construct a sand or gravel nest where the eggs are laid but does guard the eggs as the eggs are buoyant and float way from the nest.

Status

The banded sunfish is currently

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Globally, however, its population is stable and is listed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

Taxonomy and etymology

The banded sunfish was first formally described as ''Pomotis obesus'' in 1854 by the French

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Charles Frédéric Girard Charles Frédéric Girard (8 March 1822 – 29 January 1895) was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology. Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a student of Louis Agassiz. In ...

(1822-1895) with the type locality given as

Framingham Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popul ...

and in a branch of the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

, at

Holliston, Massachusetts Holliston is a New England town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States in the Greater Boston area. The population was 14,996 at the 2020 census. It is located in MetroWest, a Massachusetts region that is west of Boston. Holliston is t ...

. The generic name ''Enneacanthus'' means "nine-spined" while the specific name ''obesus'' means "fat".

References

Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection – Endangered, Threatened & Special Concern Fish

{{Taxonbar, from=Q861793 Freshwater fish of the United States Banded sunfish Fish described in 1855