Creature Feature Encyclopedia: Osteichthyes

Pumpkin Seed Lipomis gibbosis Length: to 10" (25 cm) Habitat: cool, quiet, shallow waters of slow streams, ponds, and lakes with dense vegetation

Some Summer Sunfish
by R.E. Porter, Planet Scout Gazette Staff

If you are out by a northern lake this summer, look for the precocious Pumpkin Seed. (No, not the salty Halloween snack!) The Pumpkin Seed is a large type of sunfish that got its name from its orange seed-like spots. This fish is mostly a bottom feeder, eating snails, water insects, leeches, and small minnows. Interestingly, the male builds and guards the nest. Scout Leader Melvin Waterpepper says "this is a great fish to catch if you are a beginning fisher. It is very agressive, and will go for almost any bait."

~Salamander Rain: A Lake and Pond Journal © 2001