The rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris), also known as the rock perch, goggle-eye, red eye, and black perch, is a freshwater fish native to east-central North America. This red-eyed fish is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Centrarchiformes and can be distinguished from other similar species by the six spines in the anal fin (other sunfish have only three anal fin spines).
Distribution
thumb|left|Native and introduced ranges in the United States
Rock bass are native to the St Lawrence River and Great Lakes system, the upper and middle Mississippi River basin in North America from Québec to Saskatchewan in the north down to Missouri and Arkansas, south to the Savannah River, and throughout the eastern U.S. from New York through Kentucky and Tennessee to the northern portions of Alabama and Georgia and Florida in the south. The rock bass has also been found in the Nueces River system in Texas. A population introduced to the Loire River in France between 1904 and 1910 is successfully self-sustaining, but not invasively expanding, more than 100 years later.
Description
thumb|left|A. rupestris at a Quebec aquarium
They are similar in appearance to smallmouth bass, but are usually quite a bit smaller. Identifying characteristics of rock bass are their two dorsal fins that have spinous and soft-rayed united portions, a large mouth, six anal spines, red eyes; rows of dark dots on their sides.
Habitat
Rock bass prefer clear, rocky, and vegetated stream pools and lake margins. Rocky banks of northeastern lakes and reservoirs are a common habitat for rock bass. Their favorite habitat contains some vegetation with rocky bottoms and cool to warm waters. As a result, males can become quite aggressive as they attempt to defend territory and attract and hold females. Rock bass lack courtship displays, so the female enters the nest and joins the male in his circular behavior. Both the female and male simultaneously release their sperm and eggs into the nest.
IGFA records
Rock bass are considered game fish throughout much of their range, the IGFA all-tackle world record for the species is a tie between fish – one caught in the York River in Ontario, Canada, and one from Lake Erie in Pennsylvania, US, in 1974 and 1998 respectively.
Misconceptions
Ambloplites constellatus (Ozark bass), a species of rock bass from the Ozark upland of Arkansas, and Ambloplites ariommus (shadow bass) are true rock bass, but regarded as separate species. Ambloplites rupestris is sometimes called the redeye or redeye bass in Canada, but this name refers more properly to Micropterus coosae, a distinct species of centrarchid native to parts of the American South.
Rafinesque originally assigned the rock bass to Bodianus, a genus of marine wrasses (family Labridae).