#0357 "It's A Sunny Day!"

This is a colourful pumpkinseed sunfish painted on a slab of black walnut.

The pumpkinseed sunfish are not yet endangered. They look a lot like the northern sunfish which have been added as a specie of "Special Concern" like the canary in the coal mine. At one time pumpkinseed sunfish were thought to be the same as longear sunfish. There are several varieties of sunfish in Ontario and it is good to know the differences.

Longear Sunfish

Bluegill Sunfish

Northern Sunfish

During the breeding season, males guard their nests which are made by digging saucer like depressions in gravel or cobble substrates. It eats mostly aquatic insect larvae and algae, but is known for feeding at the water's surface more frequently than other sunfish.

The main threat to Northern Sunfish in the Great Lakes and Upper St. Lawrence populations is declining habitat quality. This species likes slow-moving, clean water with plenty of aquatic vegetation and is not tolerant of muddy or polluted waters. This species is also sensitive to the removal of aquatic vegetation. In many places where the Northern Sunfish is found in the Great Lakes region, the water is becoming polluted due to soil running into waterways from nearby agricultural areas and development activities.

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