Coppernose Bluegill

Bluegills are also called brim and bream. They also go by the name coppernose bluegill. Its shape is like a hand, and there is blue on its gill. It lives east of the Rockies, from Minnesota to Florida. The size is 4 - 12 inches, with the biggest ones growing around 16 inches. The heaviest one ever caught weighed almost five pounds, actually four pounds twelve ounces.

Coppernose bluegills don't like direct sunlight. They like warmth, the warmth of shallow waters, but may move to deeper waters as the sun beats down on the shallow shorelines during the day and raises the temperature. Then they swim into deeper water. When in shallow water, they will feed among the weed beds. As they swim to the more open waters, they find their food just below the water's surface. They like to swim in groups containing ten or twenty fish.

There are a lot of larger creatures that eat bluegills. These are the largemouth bass, catfish, yellow perch, northern pike and turtles. The coppernose bluegill's slender body allows it to change direction quickly and move quickly to escape these predators. They also rely on their sight, primarily for food, and also for receptors that recognize motion.
Bluegills usually eat during the morning and evening. If food is scarce, they may eat their own eggs or young. Otherwise, they have a wide variety of things they eat: small frogs, bugs, night crawlers, dead flies, grasshoppers, leeches, small fish, crayfish, snails, larvae, and bits of corn, bread, or cheese on a fisherman's hook.

The male guards the nest where the bluegill eggs are laid by the female. He watches over the eggs until they hatch and the young can swim away on their own. The nest for the eggs is created by the male as well, who scoops out a place for the eggs in gravel or sand.