While exploring waterways in southern Illinois this month, I caught a few examples of the smallest of all sunfish species that can be found in North America.
This 3-inch fish occurs in swamps and mud-bottomed, heavily vegetated ponds, lakes and sloughs. It is perhaps the least colorful member of its genus.
Like all sunfish, its body is deep and compressed. The symmetrical shape of its body gives the Bantam Sunfish the scientific species name symmetricus.
Scattered populations of this fish exist in the southcentral United States. Adults have vertical bands of irregular brown spots often with scattered spots between the bars.
The Bantam Sunfish feeds on a variety of freshwater invertebrates. It is considered to be the least studied sunfish in the United States and is also listed as “Threatened” in Illinois.