See text Centrarchidae, better known as sunfishes, is a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Centrarchiformes, native only to North America.

Body size varies widely within the family with the black-banded sunfish at just 8 cm (3.1 in) in length, while the largemouth bass is reported to reach almost 1 m (3.3 ft) in extreme cases.

Species in the genera Lepomis are defined by a deep or more round body shape, smaller mouths, and obtaining food through suction feeding.

[2][8] Species in the genera Micropterus are defined by a more streamlined body shape, larger mouths, and consuming prey primarily by ram feeding methods.

[2][8] Centrarchids prefer clear, warm, and slower-moving water, and are commonly found in habitats such as lakes, ponds, medium to low flow streams and rivers, and swamps.

The northern edge of the native range is heavily bound by temperature due to reduced foraging ability and growth in cold weather and subsequent starvation in winter months.

Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) have no cold acclimation ability as seen through the strict maintenance of the northern boundary of the species range.

[24] Other species like smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) have exhibited signs of minor cold-water adaptation and have even experienced slight range expansions into colder habitats.

[24] If air temperatures continue to rise in the next 50 to 100 years as predicted,[25] warmwater species like centrarchids will likely experience range expansions northward and see an overall increase in occupiable habitat.

[8][28] There are multiple confirmed instances of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) severely altering and reducing native fish populations in Italy, South Africa, Japan, and Madagascar and even causing the local extinction of any species of the family Cyprinodontidae within the waterbodies they have invaded in Mexico.

[8] The earliest fossils of Centrarchidae are from latest Eocene to early Oligocene deposits from Montana and South Dakota, belonging to several as yet undescribed species and the two extinct genera †Plioplarchus and †Boreocentrarchus.