Best SA/CA species to pair with sunfish?

Not sure why everyone on here is always negative, let the guy try what he wants. I have two 3 inch redbreast sunfish with a 3 inch green terror, pictus cat and silver tip shark in a 50 gallon , it's of course a grow out tank as is yours. (who is a more aggressive than any other gt I've had) so I would agree with a convict. And of course, when the time comes, upgrade to 75 gallon or larger. I think a 20 gallon is fine for now. I had the toe sunfish and the get all in a 10 gallon for almost 2 months with no problems

GreenTerror7 said:

Not sure why everyone on here is always negative, let the guy try what he wants. I have two 3 inch redbreast sunfish with a 3 inch green terror, pictus cat and silver tip shark in a 50 gallon , it's of course a grow out tank as is yours. (who is a more aggressive than any other gt I've had) so I would agree with a convict. And of course, when the time comes, upgrade to 75 gallon or larger. I think a 20 gallon is fine for now. I had the toe sunfish and the get all in a 10 gallon for almost 2 months with no problems

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No one is stopping him from doing what he wants.... he posted the question nothing wrong with any of the answers he was give

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Even a single green sunfish is going to need at least a 36"x12" (pretty much a 30L or larger) as an adult to be housed be itself. And if it's a male, it's 90% of the time going to literally rip apart tankmates when it's an adult unless it has at least a 75G to share with other fish. If you had it in at least a 75 I can see most cichlids getting along pretty well with it but otherwise I'd keep it solo.

To the OP you should a get a 75gal+ and up so theres more space for the cichlids and sunfish to stake their territories. Regarding tank mates female green sunfish IMO are like firemouth cichlids in a way all bark and no bite unless the fish is smaller and wont fight back. Male green sunfish wont allow any other males in its territory which is usually up to three times there length and regarding the "green sunfish max out a 12 inches" usually I see males at 8 inches max in the wild, 6 inches if the body of water isn't big or just overstocked with the species which happens alot.

I've successfully kept a variety of fish with my two year old 6 1/2 inch thick bull male dubbed "hulk". He isnt overly aggressive unless there's a female in the tank then he goes beserk with most of his aggression aimed at her. Right now Hulk is with a few fish im growing out all of them are cichlids right now which consist of convicts, a firemouth, jack dempsey and green terror. He's ok right now little to no agggresion but he does and WILL eat anything that can fit in his mouth so when another member said no dwarf cichlids I wholly agree for that and several other reasons.

Also a myth about sunfish are that they need cold water which I find is false since you have sunfish in the warmer states that live in breed in 72 to over 80 degree bodies of water. But really find what works for you just because my or anyone else's experience has beem good or bad doesn't mean whatever you do could go that way.

Just my opinion anyone can feel free to disagree.


P.s. sunfish are like North Americas version of native oscars with a personality to boot.

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At this point I think we've all just said the same things with varying degrees of politeness.
One thing I would like to add though in regards to the "cold water myth"
Cold water keeps aggression down. In large tanks stocked with big aggressive fish- even tropical ones they tend to keep the temps in the lower 70s. That's how I kept my Jack Dempsey from murdering her convict roommate. The problem w the sunfish will be that lowering the temps may mellow it out a bit but it will slow your CA or SA friends quite a bit more...

FriedFlowerHornFillet said:

At this point I think we've all just said the same things with varying degrees of politeness.
One thing I would like to add though in regards to the "cold water myth"
Cold water keeps aggression down. In large tanks stocked with big aggressive fish- even tropical ones they tend to keep the temps in the lower 70s. That's how I kept my Jack Dempsey from murdering her convict roommate. The problem w the sunfish will be that lowering the temps may mellow it out a bit but it will slow your CA or SA friends quite a bit more...

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Ive heard of the temp lowering trick and ive tried that before and to me theres no difference in activity unless it drops under 65 degrees.

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As far as temp goes, I'd say most Lepomis sunfish would thrive and be most active between 66-76 F but their overall temp range is roughly 34-86 F, avoid extremes obviously .

One factor that I didn't see addressed.....& my apologies if I missed that.......disease/parasites. A WC fish can be a carrier of disease/parasite that it has immunity to, but you expose aquarium bred fish that have no resistance to those diseases/parasites & disaster can follow. And when you overstock a tank, as the OP plans, stress levels will be severely elevated, which inhibits the production of slimecoat , a fishes 1st line of defense against parasites/pathogens,& disease will spread like wild-fire.

Your right about that but risk of disease should be lower if the sunfish was captive breed or properly quarantined for diseases and any hitchhikers. But that could just go out the window if you plan to overstock the tank and end up stressing everyone out.

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