Redear sunfish
Lepomis microlophus
Also known asShellcracker · Chinquapin · Georgia bream · Stumpknocker
Water parameters
Minimum tank: 400 L per individual at harvest size.
Feed and growth
- Feed protein
- 36% target
- Daily feed (warm)
- 2.50% of body weight
- Daily feed (cool)
- 0.70% of body weight
- Max density
- 25 g per litre
A 500 g adult eats about 12.5 g of feed per day at optimum. 10 fish at adult size: ~125 g daily.
Origin and habitat
Native to the southeastern United States, from North Carolina and Florida west to southern Illinois and Missouri and south to the Rio Grande in Texas, in lakes, ponds and slow rivers. The name redear comes from the red or orange edge on the gill flap; the other common name, shellcracker, points to how it feeds. Redear carry molar-like pharyngeal teeth in the throat and live largely on snails and other hard-shelled prey, cracking ostracods, hydrobiid snails and small mussels through the year. Adults usually run about 20–30 cm and a few hundred grams, reaching a maximum near 43 cm and close to a kilogram, a little larger on average than bluegill. They favour deeper, clearer water than bluegill and lean less on shallow weed beds. The flesh is white, firm and mild, with slightly bigger fillets than bluegill, and the fish is a long-standing favourite for stocking recreational ponds.
Climate and outdoor ponds
- Climate
- temperate (handles seasonal swings)
- USDA zones
- 5–11 (winter low around -29°C or warmer)
- Heating needed
- no
- Cooling needed
- no
Care notes
A warm-temperate panfish with a useful side benefit: snail control. The crushing throat teeth let redear clear pest snails from grow beds, plumbing and tanks, and because many fish parasites cycle through snails, that grazing can lower parasite loads in a system. Growth is good, on the order of 200–400 g in 12 to 18 months on sunfish or catfish pellet of about 32 to 38 percent protein, with feed conversion near 1.8 to 2.5, similar to bluegill. Stock lightly, around {density:10}-{density:20}. Redear are calmer than bluegill, so there is less fin nipping at moderate density, and they tend not to overpopulate and stunt the way bluegill can. They reach maturity at about two years and rarely live past six. Spawning runs in a fairly narrow warm window, roughly 20 to 24 C, with males nesting in colonies in deeper water. The fish is less cold-hardy than bluegill and slows markedly below about 20°C, so it suits warm-temperate and subtropical systems better than the northern tier. Keep dissolved oxygen above about 4 mg/L, ammonia low and pH between 6.5 and 8.5. Fingerlings sell through hatcheries and farm-supply outlets across the southeastern US, usually alongside bluegill and channel catfish, and keeping the fish is legal in most states within its range without special permits.