The Okefenokee pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma okefenokee'', is a species of
pygmy sunfish
''Elassoma'' is a genus of freshwater fish, the only member of family Elassomatidae in the order Centrarchiformes. The type species is ''E. zonatum,'' the banded pygmy sunfish. The Elassomatidae are known collectively as pygmy sunfishes, and are ...
found in southeastern
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, where it prefers waters with dense vegetation growth in the
Altamaha drainage in southern Georgia south to
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee ( ) is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the List of largest lakes of the United States by area, eighth-largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest ...
, Florida, interior lake basins in north-central Florida, and upper
Suwannee,
Withlacoochee, and
Hillsborough river drainages on the Gulf Coast of Florida. This species can reach in
total length
Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology.
Overall length
Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...
.
Description
The Okefenokee pygmy sunfish is an olive green color fish with brownish-red mottling across the body, mixed with bright blue colors. ''Elassoma okefenokee'' differs from its close relative ''Elassoma gilberti'' by only having three preopercular canals (gilberti has, on average, four). The average number of anal fin rays is seven in ''E. gilberti'' whereas ''E. okefenokee'' has 8. The female ''E. gilberti'' often expresses a blue patch of color behind her eye and on her body, while the ''E. okefenokee'' does not.
Diet
Some good foods to try in the aquarium are California blackworms, daphnia, Grindal worms, microworms, and having a healthy population of snails. Some pygmy sunfish will learn to supplement their diet with crushed flake food, but this should not be relied upon as the only food source. The crushed fish flakes are a good idea, though, because they will feed the microfauna that will in turn feed the Elassoma.
Habitat
''Elassoma okefenokee'' is a freshwater, demersal fish which spends its time in dense vegetation growth in waters with a pH range of 6.0-8.0 and a dH range of 5-unknown. Their preferred temperature range is .
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Reproduction and life cycle
The male turns black with blue sparkles while the females remains clear, tan, and light brown.[
]
Importance to humans
''E. okefenokee'' are moderate-expert aquarium fish. They can breed in as little as 5 gallons of water and prefer a well planted aquarium.
Etymology
Elassoma stems from the Greek, elasson (meaning smaller) plus the Greek, soma (meaning body) in reference to the fishes' diminutive size compared to the true sunfishes
See also
*Elassomatidae
''Elassoma'' is a genus of freshwater fish, the only member of family Elassomatidae in the order Centrarchiformes. The type species is ''E. zonatum,'' the banded pygmy sunfish. The Elassomatidae are known collectively as pygmy sunfishes, and are ...
*List of fish families
This is a list of fish families sorted alphabetically by scientific name. There are 525 families in the list.
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A - B - C - D - E - F -
G - H - I - J - K -
L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
- ...
References
* Some of the content in this article was copied fro
Okefenokee Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma okefenokee)
at the Aquarium Wiki, which is licensed under th
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA) license
Sources
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q2017150
Endemic fish of the United States
Elassoma
Fish described in 1956