It has been reported from the Lake Ontario plain and in tributaries north of Skaneateles and Oneida lakes. It lives in clear, weedy streams, ponds, and bays and is reported to feed principally on aquatic insects. The small-sized longear sunfish is not an important panfish in New York. This fish is considered threatened in New York State. Dark dots represent where actual samples of longear sunfish were taken.
White dots represent historic distributions.
A 242k jpeg of the longear sunfish is also available for download .