What would be good tank mates for a native rock bass?

I wasn't attempting to discredit everything that you say, it was more of a reality check, especially considering what the OP has (an adult 8" RB in a 55 gallon) vs what you were discussing, which was anything but. Or are you keeping adult Ambloplites rupestris with adult cichlids, in a 55gallon tank? I'm rather certain that an 8" adult A. rupestris that has just been freshly plucked from a stream is not going to be wagging his tail like a puppy dog, especially in the confines of a 55 gallon tank.

As far as temps you have kept sunfish at, good for you, as per my previous comments in the last discussion I personally still don't agree, and I gave my reasons why. Some might agree, others may not, whatever.

Edit: mistyped, bluegill has been with the Syns and Sevs for ~4 months, but as I said I did it in the past with adult convicts and adult sunfish. For compatability it all depends on the individual cichlid and sunfish. I have had some sunfish, like the Green that I would not put with other sunfish of cichlids.

Putting the issue of water temps aside, it is true that compatability depends on the individual cichlid and sunfish, but it does not depend soley on the behaviour and/or aggression level of each fish. The OP has a 55 gallon tank, and size of tank always matters when mixing fish that have the potential to be nasty, as does the size, sex, and sexual maturity of the fish. In a 55 gallon tank, mixing other fish with an adult rock bass, is not going to be easy, and may prove to be impossible.

Why even talk about oscars, vieja, etc, when the OP clearly doesn't have a tank to take on those kind of mature sizes? I guess you lost me there, that, and your wagging their tails like puppy dogs comment. An Ambloplites rupestris does not reach 8", especially in a creek, by acting like a puppy. They reach that size by being a very successful predator, and kiiling & eating everything & anything that crosses its path in that creek.

And when asking this exact same question in the Cold Water, Temperate and North American Native Fish folder, guess what the response was?


http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...-would-make-decent-tank-mates-for-a-rock-bass

My current Rock bass is not an adult yet, but my bluegill is, and in the past I have kept other species of sunfish into adulthood. He is in a 90g with other cichlids and sunfish, including the adult bluegill and some mature cichlids. But as I said, sunfish are quite variable in personality. My current (albeit juvenile) RB is very mild and non-aggressive. My last one was already very predatory and aggressive at an even smaller size than the one I have now. In fact it died trying to eat a fish his own size. It just depends. However both were very tame, my current RB lets me touch him, is always watching me and hangs out with the baby oscars. Sunfish get tame amazingly fast, especially RB and Green sunfish, though bluegills and PSeeds aren't too far behind. I have a permit to keep native fish I catch and most my sunfish are swimming at the front begging for food ("wagging their tails) within a week of me catching them.

I missed the 55g tank size mentioned by the OP, and probably it wouldn't work well to add cichlids because of that size, and because they wouldn't be growing up together. But it may depending on the personality of each fish. There are few guarantees in fish keeping. If it were me I'd up the tank size and try cichlids, or else just do some kind of catfish/pleco.

As as far as temp goes low tropical and room temps are almost the same - low to mid 70s. Here is a thread I made on Nanfa right before I permanently added some of my sunfish to one of my Cichlid tanks. The person who responded is very experienced in keeping sunfish. Even though I had kept the two together in the past I wanted to double check that it wouldn't harm the sunfish to never cool down.

http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/to...ool-down-period/page__pid__121355#entry121355 of the size

Oh, I see, you missed the 55 gallon part. Tank size is kind of important regarding the OP's enquiry.


You don't have to keep repeating the fact that fish can vary in personality, I get it, as do most people who have been keeping fish longer than a few minutes. Everyone also knows that there are no guarantees in life, or fish keeping.

Having said that, just as when dealing with any group of fish I am of the opinion that there are general guidelines that one should follow when dealing with certain species - and that also applies to fish from the Centrarchidae family. As an example, in captivity the green sunfish is generally speaking more aggressive than bluegills or pumpkinseeds. In a 55 gallon tank adding tankmates is generally going to be no bueno. IMO the same applies to rock bass, they are tough little buggers and will "generally" be more aggressive than some of the other sunfish, especially if the fish are males, and especially full grown wild specimens, such as the OP's fish. We aren't discussing baby fish, but a full grown RB freshly plucked from a creek. Add to that the limited size of a 55 gallon tank. Think about it.


The fact that the odd one will be easy going when it is in it's juvenile stage, doesn't prove anything. Lots of juvenile fish are cute & cuddly when they are juvies, while later on in life they will draw blood from your hand if you aren't careful. Or they will become aggro towards their tank mates, often times even when the fish have been raised together. If you've never experienced this, chances are you haven't been keeping fish that long. Just like everything else, sexual maturity in fish changes everything.

Even in all male tanks sunfish can get aggressive, I know this from personal experience, and this was in a 6ft 125 gallon tank. I was also told from more than one very experienced member of NANFA that male on male aggression would not be an issue if I kept the temp below 70F, and had the typical line of site breaks, etc. Guess what, they were dead wrong. Maybe these guys don't watch their tanks as close as I do, or their idea of "working" or "aggression", is different than mine? I don't know, but it was no bueno across the board with a large group of specimens. I'm sure that aggression levels would have been different in a much larger tank, but 3 longears each held 1/3 of that tank, and every other male got kicked back & forth like a soccer ball. No one got killed, or torn up too badly, but I'm quite certain that it was a very stressful existence for all. For that reason I didn't keep the set up long.

So while I could get away with what the boys on NANFA were saying, it didn't result in being what I would consider the most ideal way to keep this species, anymore than it would be IDEAL keeping fish from this family in tropical temps year round. Just like all fish, NA native species such as sunfish have a typical temp range in the wild, and it is my opinion that all fish will live an optimum life if kept in the same (or at least close) to the temp ranges they would experience in the wild.

So for myself, pounding a square peg into a round hole, just because I can, is also no bueno.


Hopefully the OP will glean something of value from this conversation.

Happy fish keeping.

Yes, Greens are significantly more aggressive than other Sunfish IME. I am currently growing one out with a bunch of fish in hopes it will play nice, but I am keeping a close eye on him and I'm prepared I may need to move him if he get to aggressive. A few observations I have gleaned regarding Sunfish - I, like RD have also not had as good of luck with sunfish communities. Even with juveniles there was a lot of chasing, nipping, and bullying.

The two things I have found that have significantly reduced this is keeping only one fish per sunfish species (EG keeping 1 pumpkinseed, 1 bluegill, 1 rock bass, 1 green, 1 longear) is much easier than keeping 5 of the same species. Some species are more aggressive than others generally, but more than anything they are all aggressive to their own species moreso than others. The other thing I have noticed is that my sunfish are much more peaceful with each other now that I have added cichlids in all their tanks. This is one of the reason I am such a proponent of the combo, even though it is a bit unorthodox I have had much better luck long term with this combo than keeping sunfish only with other sunfish (especially sunfish of the same species). My theory is that properly selected cichlids are aggressive enough to be able to hold their own, similar enough to provide a distraction from the other sunfish, but dissimilar enough to to keep them from being too much of a target.

Part of the reason I missed the tank size was because the OP mentioned he has a LM Bass in the tank. Since the RB has been successfully living with a LM half it's size it doesn't sound like it is a stone cold killer, or in that size tank the LM would have been toast long ago. I think this fact bodes well for being able to potentially keep other fish with the RB. If the OP is set on adding cichlids as opposed to a medium size catfish/pleco, then a full grown Convict may be the best option, since they are cheap, tough, and not too big or too small.

This pic is from a couple months ago... the Bluegill is about 7 inches and at that time the Syns were about the same. The Syns are several years old, but were stunted by their previous owner. They have put on a lot of weight since then and are starting to grow again now I think.

Just for the record, the issue I had with my sunfish community was not due to them all being the same species, it was due to them all being the same sex, and being overcrowded. Too many damn males for a 72x18" footprint. I actually had spawn sites created in the gravel, and pseudo spawning take place amongst the males. Had I gone with 2 males, and say 6 females, this would have been a fairly harmonious set up. One male on each side with a 36x18" territory, and females coming & going in between. In nature longears will have each nesting site almost touching each other in crowded waterways, with no serious aggression issues. But I must admit, that many males housed together sure did look sweet.

I had no serious aggression issues at all growing out 13 juvenile longears in a fairly bare bones 50 gallon. The problem started after the fish were transferred to a much larger tank, and after they became sexually mature and began staking out territory. Then everything became no bueno very quickly!

Territorial aggression can take place among the same species, or different species, if the fish are territorial by nature they don't care if it's a longear, or a pumpkinseed, they are going to square off against each other. Brian on NANFA actually explained this fairly well to you a few months back in the following thread when you were asking about a sunfish community in your 55 gallon.

http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/14582-sunfish-compatability/

And 5 yrs ago when I was asking about my all male longear tank, another long time member of both NANFA, and MFK (sandtiger) had this to say:

I tried to keep my male sunfishes together and it didn't work out in the long run. Each fish setup their own territory but on occasion one would try to expand their territory and chase another off theirs, I always would end up with an odd man out. If I took that fish out than the process would begin again. I originally had four together. A pumpkinseed, spotted and two longears. Eventually I tried just two males thinking they would have enough space but that didn't work either. This was when they were in breeding mode, which is just about always. Since then I've decided giving the fish their own smaller tanks was a better option than trying to keep them all together in one or two big tanks.

Click to expand...

So long term, it doesn't always work out well with singles of different species, either.


And as far as that 4" LMB in the OP's tank, you might be surprised how pissy a LMB can be in an aquarium setting. So it doesn't surprise me that it's holding its own, at least for now. That doesn't mean that things can't change in the blink of an eye.


All this sunfish talk has actually got me missing that tank, or at least what could have been had I done things smarter.

Sweet Suns Neil!!!