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Long-eared Sunfish
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One of our most abundant sunfishes from Michigan and Minnesota southward to South Carolina and the Rio Grande. It is found in most streams, especially in clear brooks. It reaches a length of 7 or 8 inches and does not differ essentially from any of the other smaller sunfishes, either as a panfish or in its game qualities.
It is extremely variable in form and colour, but is always one of the most brightly coloured of fresh-water fishes.
Body short and deep, compressed, the back very strongly arched in adult, the profile very steep, usually forming an angle above the eyes, but sometimes full and convex; mouth small, oblique, the premaxillary rather below the eye, the maxillary reaching middle of eye; gillrakers very short and soft, weaker than in any other species; dorsal spines very low, the longest little longer than snout, 3 in head; opercular flap in the adult very long and broad, with a pale blue or red margin, which is sometimes very broad, sometimes almost wanting; opercular flap half, or more, longer than the eye in the adult, much shorter in the young. Colour, brilliant blue and orange, the back chiefly blue, the belly entirely orange, the orange on sides in spots, the blue in wavy, vertical streaks; lips blue; cheek orange, with bright blue stripes; blue stripes before the eye, soft parts of vertical fins with the rays blue and the membranes orange; ventrals dusky; iris red.