Warmouth

The warmouth (Lepomis gulosus) is a freshwater fish of the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) that is found throughout the eastern United States. Other local names include molly, redeye, goggle-eye, red-eyed bream, and strawberry perch.

Habitat

The primary diet of the warmouth consists of insects, crayfish, and other fish. They are sight feeders, and can survive in polluted, low-oxygenated waters where other sunfish cannot, like rock bass. The largest factor affecting warmouth density and biomass in Florida's lakes is the availability of aquatic macrophytes, which allows the fish to ambush prey and use as areas to spawn. The primary diet of young warmouth is microcrustaceans and aquatic insect larvae, whereas larger specimens tend to mainly consume crayfish, freshwater shrimp, isopods, and other small fish. Their predators include larger fish, snakes, turtles, alligators, and birds. The primary habitats the warmouth occupies are areas with ample vegetation as cover with slower-moving water, often around stumps, brush piles, and other dense entanglements that allow the warmouth the ability to ambush prey, yet escape larger predators that may threaten them.

Distribution

Warmouth are found throughout much of the south in the Mississippi River drainage, from the Gulf and Atlantic coasts and northward to the Chesapeake Bay, and westward throughout Texas to the Rio Grande, and northward into the Great Lakes Basin area. The warmouth is a highly aggressive and hardy fish, and they can live in ponds, lakes, rivers, and backwater streams and can often survive in streams with low oxygen levels where other species of sunfish cannot. The species exists with breeding populations in southern portions of Canada, and likely has existed there for many years prior to being detected.