When identifying any sunfish species you can start with our sunfish identification guide and the mouth size compared to the body size, opercular flap length, margin color, and flexibility, and pectoral fin length. Sunfish in general are often misidentified by anglers due to their small size, ability to hybridize, and similarity of physical features among the Lepomis genus. The redear sunfish has several common names, including shellcracker, cherry gill, sun perch, Georgia bream, stump knocker, chinquapin, and sun perch. Lepomis is Greek for scaled gill cover or scaled cover and microlophus is Greek for small nape. The scientific name he gave the Redear Sunfish was Lepomis microlophus.

The specimen observed by Gunther was from the St. Gunther first wrote about redear sunfish in Catalogue of the Acanthopterygian Fishes in the Collection of the British Museum. Redear sunfish were first described by Albert Karl Ludwing Gotthilf Gunther in 1859. Redear are commonly referred to as perch however, true perch are species such as walleye, darters, and yellow perch are found in the Percidae family. Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) belongs to the Centrarchidae family, which includes black crappie, bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, and largemouth bass and the Lepomis genus which include the 13 acknowledged sunfish species. But do you know why they have the nickname shellcracker or that the males make a popping sound to trigger females to drop eggs? If these facts are news to you, this species profile will likely prove to be a valuable resource for you.

Since that time every sunfish angler has dreamed of a trip west to chase monster shellcrackers. Redear Sunfish are a delicious panfish that hit world fame in 2021 when the world record redear 6-pound, 4-ounce fish was caught out of Lake Havasu.

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