Riverine Fish

Ohio is blessed with an abundance of water, but like all developing areas, past and present land use practices affect our water resources.

Land uses that allow soil to runoff into our waterways cause silting of streams and increased turbidity, which can result in a lower quality of water and thus a loss in the diversity of aquatic organisms.

Fish have specific habitat requirements, thus the health of a fish community can tell us a great deal about the quality of the waterway where they reside.

Riverine Fish of Ohio's Scenic Rivers

Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis)

Longear SunfishOne of the most colorful of all Ohio fishes, longears require streams having moderate gradients, clean substrates composed of sand, gravels, and cobbles, and low water turbidities.

Longears will utilize a variety of instream structure such as beds of aquatic vegetation, root wads and other types of woody debris for cover and loafing areas.

Increasing water turbidities and habitat siltation in many of Ohio's streams has resulted in the loss of many populations throughout Ohio, particularly in the larger rivers. The largest populations are currently found in the smaller headwater streams and in those moderate-sized streams having clear waters and clean silt-free substrates.

Many of the populations of longear sunfish in western and northern Ohio have been eliminated or greatly reduced as a consequence of the destruction of the riparian forests which help to buffer these stream systems from adjacent land uses.