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Length: usually about 15-20
cm, can reach 40cm
Weight: usually less than
450gr, can reach 650gr
Coloring: sides speckled with
orange, yellow, blue, and emerald spots; breast and belly orange to
orange-red
Common Names: yellow sunfish,
pumpkinseed sunfish, common sunfish, round sunfish, bream, and sun bass
Found in Lakes: Kouris,
Kannaviou, Malounda,
Tamasos
Colorful, abundant, and easy
to catch, pumpkinseeds are tremendously popular with anglers of all
ages.
Identification
Part of the sunfish family, the pumpkinseed is a very
deep-bodied, laterally compressed, almost disk-like fish. They
are the most colorful fish found in Cyprus waters, breeding
males especially so. The fish’s breast and belly are orange to
red-orange, and its back and sides are brown to olive. Its sides
and back are speckled with orange, yellow, blue, and emerald
spots.
The opercle flap is black with a distinctive crimson spot in
a half-moon shape on the rear edge. Also, they have 7-8 dark
vertical bands on their sides that are irregular. Additionally,
the pumpkinseed has several narrow wavy stripes, alternating
orange-brown or light blue.
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Habitat
Pumpkinseeds can be found in shallow, cool to moderately warm
water. Preferring cover of some type, such as aquatic
vegetation or submerged brush, they are seldom found in open
water. Ideal water temperatures range from 23 to 31 degrees C.
Pumpkinseeds are tolerant of low oxygen levels, but less
tolerant of warm water. Groups of young fish school close to
shore, but adults tend to travel in groups of 2-4 in slightly
deeper yet still covered waters. Pumpkinseeds are active
throughout the day, but they rest at night near the bottom or in
protected areas in rocks or near submerged logs.
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Life Cycle
When water temperatures reach 12-17 degrees C (late spring or
early summer - May to August), male pumpkinseeds start to build
nests to spawn. Spawning sites are generally in shallow water
from 15 cm to about 1.5 meters deep on sand or gravel bottoms.
The males use their caudal fins to sweep out shallow,
saucer-shaped depressions about twice the length of the fish in
diameter (about 10 to 35 cm). The fish remove larger objects
like rocks by pulling them out with their mouths.
Nests are built in colonies of 3 to 15 nest sites. Males
vigorously defend their nests with typical sunfish aggressive
behavior—spreading of the opercula, charging, biting, chasing,
and, rarely, mouth-fighting.
Females arrive after the nests are completed, coming in from
deeper waters. At first the females appear to be chased away
from the nest by the males, but after a considerable amount of
chasing, the females head toward the nest instead of away from
it. Once the female is in the nest, the pair swims in circles
side by side, with the bellies of both fish touching. The male
then releases milt and the female releases eggs. Females may
spawn in more than one nest, and more than one female may use
the same nest. Sometimes more than one female will spawn with a
male simultaneously. Females produce 1,700 to
3,000 eggs,
depending on their size and age.
The small eggs stick to gravel, sand, or debris in the nest,
and they hatch in as little as three days at 28 degrees C.
Females leave the nest immediately after spawning, but males
remain and are highly protective, guarding the eggs and fanning
them. The newly hatched young are minute and transparent, for
some time only the eyes are visible. The male guards them for
about the first 11 days, returning them to the nest in his mouth
if they try to stray.
The young fish stay on or near the shallow breeding area and
grow to about 5 cm in their first year. Sexual maturity is
usually achieved by age 1 or 2. Pumpkinseeds can live up to 6-8
years.
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Place in the Ecosystem
Pumpkinseeds eat a diverse diet of small prey, such as
insects, insect larvae, mollusks, snails and other crustaceans,
and small fish. They are effective at destroying mosquito
larvae. They feed at all water levels from the surface to the
bottom, and they feed throughout the day.
All fish that eat other fish will eat pumpkinseeds, and large
pumpkinseeds will eat smaller pumpkinseeds. Because they tend to
spend so much time in shallow water, they’re also eaten by
cormorants, mergansers, and herons. Pumpkinseeds are accustomed
to being low on the food chain, so they reproduce rapidly.
However, this means that without pressure from predators they
reproduce so rapidly that there isn’t enough food and habitat
for all of the fish to grow large. This can cause populations of
stunted fish.
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Fishing
Because they tend to remain in the shallows and feed all day,
pumpkinseeds are relatively easy to catch from shore. They will
bite at most bait—including garden worms, insects, leeches, or
bits of fish. They will also take small artificial lures and can
be fished for with a fly rod with wet flies or dry flies. They are less active
from mid to late winter.
They may be easy to catch and popular with the youngest
anglers, but pumpkinseeds are often sought by adults as well.
The fish do put up an aggressive fight on line, and they have an
excellent flavor and are low in fat and high in protein. Do be
careful when handling; pumpkinseeds have sharp spines. |
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