---
title: "Spotted Sunfish"
description: "Lepomis punctatus — Vissen. The spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus), also known as a stumpknocker, is a member of the freshwater sunfish family Centrarchidae and order Centrarchiformes."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/spotted-sunfish
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Spotted Sunfish

> Lepomis punctatus — Vissen. The spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus), also known as a stumpknocker, is a member of the freshwater sunfish family Centrarchidae and order Centrarchiformes.

- Scientific name: *Lepomis punctatus*
- Category: `fish` (Vissen)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Meren en rivieren)
- iNaturalist observations: 2327
- Wikidata: [Q1069776](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1069776)
- iNaturalist taxon: [104256](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/104256)

## Names

- en: Spotted Sunfish
- de: Gepunkteter Sonnenbarsch
- es: Mojarra manchada

## Countries with the most observations

US (2183)

## Summary

The spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus), also known as a stumpknocker, is a member of the freshwater sunfish family Centrarchidae and order Centrarchiformes. The redspotted sunfish, redear sunfish and pumpkinseed sunfish are its closest relatives.
Lepomis punctatus is olive-green to brown in color with black to reddish spots at the base of each scale that form rows of dots on the side. The scientific name punctatus refers to this spotted pattern. It was first described in 1831 by Valenciennes.
The spotted sunfish is a warmwater native of the Southeastern United States that inhabits areas of slow moving water. It is…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_sunfish

## Photo

![Spotted Sunfish](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/spotted-sunfish/medium.jpg)

Photo: David Emmanuel · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/272353024

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/spotted-sunfish?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).