sunfish, any of numerous species of North American freshwater fishes placed with the crappies and black basses in the family Centrarchidae (order Perciformes). The family contains about 30 species, all native to North America and all, with the exception of the Sacramento perch (Archoplites interruptus), native to waters east of the Rocky Mountains. Several species have been introduced in other countries. The members of this family are characterized by relatively deep bodies and a single, continuous dorsal fin consisting of an anterior spiny portion and a posterior soft-rayed portion; the two sections may, as in the black basses, be divided by a notch, but they are not separate as they are in the related perches.
Typical of quiet ponds and lakes, the centrarchids are carnivorous fishes that feed on other fishes and aquatic invertebrates. They range in size from tiny sunfishes (Elassoma) that mature at a length of 2.5 cm (1 inch) to the largemouth black bass (see ), attaining a maximum of about 80 cm and 10 kg (22 pounds).
The sunfishes, though small (usually less than 20 cm long), are considered fine food and game fishes. Some possess a distinctive flap, or “ear lobe,” at the upper hind edge of the gill cover. Sunfishes, deeper-bodied than the black basses, are also more brightly coloured, as their name implies. The males are especially colourful during the spring breeding season, when they, like other centrarchids, hollow out nests with their tails and, after inducing the female to lay, guard the eggs and sometimes the young.
Better known species of sunfishes include the black-banded sunfish (Enneacanthus chaetodon) of the eastern United States; the bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), a well-known food and sport fish coloured greenish, with an orange belly and blue on the lower edge of the head and gill covers; the longear sunfish (L. megalotis), marked with orange spots and wavy, bright-blue streaks; the pumpkinseed, or common, sunfish (L., or Eupomotis, gibbosus), a green or bluish fish with an orange belly and a red spot on its ear; and the rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris), a food and sport fish coloured greenish with irregular dark markings.