The spotted bass (''Micropterus punctulatus''), also called spotty, or spots in various fishing communities, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of North American

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of ...

belonging to the sunfish

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

(

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 ...

) of the order

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means ...

. It is noted for the rows of dark spots below the lateral line, which give it its common name. One of the

black bass Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

es, it is native to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

basin and across the Gulf states, from central

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

through the Florida panhandle. Its native range extends into the western Mid-Atlantic states and it has been introduced into western

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. It has also been introduced to

southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

, where it has become established in some isolated waters as an invasive species. Spotted bass can reach an overall length of almost , and weights of up to . It can live to an age of at least seven years. Preferring cool and warm mountain streams and

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

s with rocky bottoms, the spotted bass feeds on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

s, annelid worms and smaller fish. It is often mistaken for the similar and more common

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

. A convenient way to distinguish between a largemouth and a spotted bass is by the size of the mouth. A spotted bass will resemble a largemouth bass in coloration but will have a smaller mouth. In 2010, the scientific community officially recognized a separate subspecies of spotted bass, native to the Tallapoosa and Coosa Rivers and their

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s. This species is commonly known as the Alabama spotted bass (''M. henshalli'') and known locally as the "Coosa spotted bass", not to be confused with the redeye Coosa bass found in

northeast Georgia Northeast Georgia is a region of Georgia in the United States. The northern part is also in the north Georgia mountains, while the southern part (east of metro Atlanta) is still hilly but much flatter in topography. Northeast Georgia is also se ...

. The Alabama spotted bass is highly prized as a

gamefish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish pursued by recreational anglers, and can be freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be eaten after being caught, or released after capture. Some game fish are also targeted commercia ...

and average size is much larger than the more common Kentucky spotted bass. The current record spotted bass, caught in

Pine Flat Lake Pine Flat Lake is an artificial lake or reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills of eastern Fresno County, California on the western north-south border to the Sierra- and Sequoia National Forests, about east of Fresno. The lake is managed by ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, weighed .

Etymology

''Micropterus'' means small fin, and ''punctulatus'' means dotted.

Description

Many

angler Angler may refer to: * A fisherman who uses the fishing technique of angling * ''Angler'' (video game) * The angler, ''Lophius piscatorius'', a monkfish * More generally, any anglerfish in the order Lophiiformes * '' Angler: The Cheney Vice Pres ...

s who catch a spotted bass mistake it for a

due to the coloration, although there are subtle differences. The spotted bass, like all

es except the largemouth, has scales on the base portion of the second

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

, its first and second dorsal fin are clearly connected, and its upper jaw bone does not extend back to or beyond the rear edge of the eyes. The spotted bass is also often confused with a smallmouth bass (or "smally" for short), but it lacks the vertical bars that are present on the sides of a smallmouth's body. The spotted bass also has small black spots below the lateral line unlike either the large or smallmouth bass. Juveniles often resemble the young smallmouth bass in having a broad band of orange at the base of the tail, followed by a broad black band and white edge. The spotted bass is known to

hybridize Hybridization (or hybridisation) may refer to: *Hybridization (biology), the process of combining different varieties of organisms to create a hybrid *Orbital hybridization, in chemistry, the mixing of atomic orbitals into new hybrid orbitals *Nu ...

with the smallmouth, which sometimes makes identification difficult. Spotted bass can be found in deeper water than smallmouth bass, at depths up to .

Distribution and habitat

Spotted bass seems to segregated by habitat type from closely related species such as the largemouth and smallmouth basses. They tend to be found in areas with more

water current A current in a fluid is the magnitude and direction of flow within that fluid, such as a liquid or a gas. Types of fluid currents include: * Air current * Boundary current * Current (stream), a current in a river or stream * Longshore current * ...

than the largemouth, and usually inhabit areas that are too warm, turbid and sluggish for smallmouth bass. They usually occur around

aquatic vegetation Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that g ...

, submerged logs, and rock or

riprap Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...

walls in small to large flowing streams, rivers, and reservoirs. Spotted bass are distributed throughout the Ohio River basin as well as the central and lower

basin. The species may be found in Gulf Coast states from

east to

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 ...

. Spotted bass are native to portions of

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region cons ...

, particularly in the

Sabine The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines di ...

, Neches and Cypress Rivers.

Diet

Spotted bass usually feed on small fishes, crayfishes and aquatic insects. The young begin with copepods and other small

s and soon begin to eat insects. The spotted bass' diet falls in between the largemouth and smallmouth bass. It isn't nearly as

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

as the largemouth and only consumes about half the amount of the fish. Like all bass the spotted bass feeds by opening its mouth and creating a negative pressure that sucks in the prey.

Reproduction and life cycle

The spotted bass can live approximately six years.

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 aquat ...

occurs from April to May in habitat similar to that used by smallmouth. The males build their nest in gravel or other substrate, then entices a female to deposit her

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s. The males guard the eggs until they disperse. Several spotted and smallmouth bass hybrids have been collected recently in area reservoirs suggesting there is occasionally competition between the two species for spawning habitat.

Importance to humans

The spotted bass is a popular

game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish pursued by recreational anglers, and can be freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be eaten after being caught, or released after capture. Some game fish are also targeted commercial ...

that is fished regularly. In this context spotted bass is a good

food fish Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ing ...

for human consumption.

Invasive species

The spotted bass was introduced to the Thee River, Olifants‐

Doring River The Doring River ( af, Doringrivier) is a river in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. It is part of the Olifants/Doring River system. The name 'Doring' is also applied to a stretch of the Sout River, another Olifants tributary, midway t ...

system,

Western Cape Province The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

as game fish before 2007, and is now rated as an invasive species. The population was successfully eradicated in 2014, where gillnets and

hand net A hand net, also called a scoop net, is a fishing net or meshed basket held open on a rigid hoop, which may or may not be mounted to the end of a handle. A hand net with a long handle is often called a dip net. When it is used by an angler to ...

s were used to remove the majority of the stock, while individuals were also caught by

speargun A speargun is a ranged underwater fishing device designed to launch a tethered spear or harpoon to impale fish or other marine animals and targets. Spearguns are used in sport fishing and underwater target shooting. The two basic types are ''pn ...

seine net Seine fishing (or seine-haul fishing; ) is a method of fishing that employs a surrounding net, called a seine, that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats. Seine nets can be de ...

s and backpack

electrofishing Electrofishing is a fishing technique that uses direct current electricity flowing between a submerged cathode and anode. This affects the movements of nearby fish so that they swim toward the anode, where they can be caught or stunned.

. The spotted bass was held responsible for a decline in abundance of native

fiery redfin The fiery redfin (''Pseudobarbus phlegethon'') is an African freshwater fish species in the family (biology), family Cyprinidae. The fish is endemism, endemic to South Africa, where it can be found in the Oudste, Thee, Noordhoeks, Boskloof and R ...

(''Pseudobarbus phlegethon'' Barnard, 1938) and

Cape galaxias The Cape galaxias (''Galaxias zebratus'') is a species of freshwater fish of the family Galaxiidae. It is a small fish, rarely larger than 6 cm, that inhabits clear streams, rivers and ponds of South Africa. It shares the same habitat as i ...

(''Galaxias zebratus'' Castelnau, 1861).

References

External links

* Rohde, F. C., et al. ''Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994, {{Taxonbar, from=Q3643840

Spotted bass The spotted bass (''Micropterus punctulatus''), also called spotty, or spots in various fishing communities, is a species of North American freshwater fish belonging to the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of the order Perciformes. It is noted fo ...

Freshwater fish of the United States Fish of the Eastern United States Fauna of the Southeastern United States Freshwater fish of the Southeastern United States