Have you caught this fish?
Interesting fact the Redear sunfish also known as the Shellcracker has been found in fossil records as far back a 16.3 million years. Besides being known as a Shellcracker it is also known as Georgia bream, cherry gill, chinquapin, improved bream, rouge ear sunfish, and sun perch, but most of us might just call the fun to catch. They are native to the southeastern United States, but because of their popularity in the world of sport fishing they have been introduced to bodies of water all around North America.
The Redear sunfish is a very close resembles the bluegill, the differences between them is coloration and size. The Redear is larger but just slightly max length of a Shellcracker is 17” while a Bluegills maximum length is 16”. The other distinctive difference is of course color. The male has a cherry-red edge of its Operculum (operculum of a bony fish is the hard bony flap covering and protecting the gills) It is darker colored dorsally and yellow-green ventrally.
The female has the same colors with the exception instead of the cherry red edges of the operculum which is orange in color.
Favorite food of the Shellcracker snails, being bottom feeders they search out snails and shelled creatures. The fish’s throat is designed to be able to crush the shell of these types of as the have a type of teeth that are found in there throat. This is important to know as this fish is a predator of the devastating quagga mussel, and is a great way to use nature to control itself. So not only is the Redear sunfish a fun fish to catch but if used and planted correctly they can also help save our water ways.