''Elassoma'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does in ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

, the only member of subfamily Elassomatinae of 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 in ...

in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

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 sometimes classified as a separate family, the Elassomatidae, in a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

, Elassomatoidei, in Perciformes. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

is ''E. zonatum,'' the banded pygmy sunfish. The Elassomatinae are known collectively as pygmy sunfishes, but are considered by some authorities not to be true sunfishes, which are members of family

. Some researchers believe they are related to sticklebacks and pipefishes (order

Syngnathiformes The Syngnathiformes are an order of ray-finned fishes that includes the trumpetfishes and seahorses.FishBase (2005)Order Summary for Syngnathiformes Version of 2005-FEB-15. Retrieved 19 Aug 2008. These fishes have elongated, narrow, bodies sur ...

) rather than Perciformes, though genetic research strongly implies a close relationship with the centrarchids. Currently the Integrated Taxonomic Information System classifies them in the family Elassomatidae rather than Centrarchidae. The pygmy sunfishes grow to a maximum overall length of . They occur mostly in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

and subtropical swamps,

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

es, and other shallow, slow-moving, and heavily vegetated waters, across an area of the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

stretching from the Coastal Plain of

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 a ...

to central

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, a ...

, west along the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Missis ...

to eastern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, and north up the

Mississippi River Valley The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its confl ...

to southern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

. The bluebarred, Carolina, and spring pygmy sunfishes have small localized populations and are considered Vulnerable. The pygmy sunfishes are too small to be game fish, but are relatively popular as aquarium fish because of the males'

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...

colors and fascinating breeding behaviors.

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 are laid on or beneath dense vegetation, and the male guards the

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

area until the fry hatch and scatter. They adapt well to small aquaria and are relatively adaptable to a range of conditions, but seldom take conventional prepared fish foods, instead requiring small live

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete worm ...

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 pairs ...

s, or

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 gro ...

s as food.

Etymology

The generic name ''Elassoma'' derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

ελάσσων (''elasson'') meaning smaller and σώμα (''soma'') meaning body, in reference to the fishes' diminutive size compared to the typical sunfishes.

Species

The currently recognized species in this genus are: * ''

Elassoma alabamae The spring pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma alabamae'', is a species of pygmy sunfish Endemism, endemic to spring (hydrology), springs in northern Alabama. It was historically known to occur in springs in North Alabama along the Tennessee River in Limes ...

'' Mayden, 1993 (spring pygmy sunfish) * ''

Elassoma boehlkei The Carolina pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma boehlkei'', is a species of pygmy sunfish endemic to the United States, where it is only known from the Waccamaw and Santee River drainages in the Carolinas. This species prefers waters with dense veget ...

'' Rohde & R. G. Arndt, 1987 (Carolina pygmy sunfish) * ''

Elassoma evergladei ''Elassoma evergladei'', or the Everglades pygmy sunfish, is a species of fish from the genus ''Elassoma'' (the pygmy sunfishes) that is endemic to North America. Description The fish can grow to a maximum length of 3.4 cm (in total length ...

'' D. S. Jordan, 1884 (Everglades pygmy sunfish) * ''

Elassoma gilberti The Gulf Coast pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma gilberti'', is a species of pygmy sunfish endemic to Florida, United States. This species can reach in standard length. Etymology The fish is named in honor of Carter R. Gilbert (1930-2022), who was ...

'' Snelson, Krabbenhoft &

Quattro Quattro is Italian for the number four. Quattro may also refer to: People * "Quattro", a nickname of A. J. Foyt IV Fictional characters * Quattro Vageena or Quattro Bageena, an alias of Char Aznable in the ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' anime series ...

, 2009 (Gulf Coast pygmy sunfish) * ''

Elassoma okatie The bluebarred pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma okatie'', is a species of pygmy sunfish endemic to South Carolina, United States, where it prefers waters with dense vegetation growth in the Edisto and Savannah River drainages. This species can reach ...

'' Rohde & R. G. Arndt, 1987 (bluebarred pygmy sunfish) * ''

Elassoma okefenokee The Okefenokee pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma okefenokee'', is a species of pygmy sunfish found in southeastern United States, where it prefers waters with dense vegetation growth in the Altamaha drainage in southern Georgia south to Lake Okeechobe ...

'' J. E. Böhlke, 1956 (Okefenokee pygmy sunfish) * ''

Elassoma zonatum The banded pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma zonatum'', is a species of pygmy sunfish endemic to the United States, where it is found from Indiana and Illinois to Texas to the Atlantic coast. It prefers densely vegetated bodies of slow-moving water. T ...

'' D. S. Jordan, 1877 (banded pygmy sunfish)

References

Other sources

*North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA) Elassoma forum
Pygmy Sunfishes - NANFA Forum
*Duzen, Bill.

" ''The Native Fish Conservancy Website.'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q244335 Elassomatoidei Centrarchidae Fauna of the Southeastern United States

Etymology

Species

See also

References

Other sources