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

[RD.]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a geographical purist, that really wasn't what my original objections in this discussion were even based on. Ideal species temp issues aside, my comments were originally specifically about the footprint of a 55 gallon tank, and the comments about mixing oscars, vieja, carpintis, etc, with natives, from someone who barely has any experience with these species, let alone mixing them with natives. Keeping a 7" bluegill with a couple of stunted syns for a few months hardly equates to a success story. In fact, if I was attempting to condition a couple of seriously stunted synspilums, the last thing I would be doing is keeping them in a tank where the water was 70F. (or low 70's) I would dial up the temp, get their metabolism in high gear, increase their feed, and toss a LOT of clean water at them.


This is not a geographical purist position that I am taking, not at all.

And you're right, a 55 gallon tank is hardly a tank to be experimenting with when mixing various sunfish with various CA or SA cichlids. Which goes directly back to my original comment posted in this discussion.

In a 55, that 8" rock bass should probably be flying solo. And IME, an adult wild rock bass acts nothing like a domestic born & raised oscar. Most are stone cold killers. Just as in most species, one cannot compare the aggression level of a juvenile, with a sexually mature adult. If you got lucky, and the rocky isn't overly aggro, you might try posting this question in the native folder. This is not an ideal set up for most CA or SA species.

 

[viejafish]

A home aquarium is not a public aquarium which has an educational purpose to show fish from the same geographical area. A home aquarium is an ornamental tank to show fish that are beautiful, or interesting. Any fish can be mixed in a home aquarium as long as they can live together in harmony, and tolerate similar temperature and water requirements. In term of harmony, conspecific aggression is greater than inter species aggression so it is actually easier to mix fish from different genera together than fish of the same genera or species. Many cichlid keepers keep single male of each species and often mix Africans with American to reduce aggression. The biggest challenge of mixing Sunfish and cichlid is temperature tolerance. You certaintly can't mix cichlid and sunfish in an unheated tank, but it is OK to mix them in a heated tank as there are sunfish species native of subtropical environment. Harmony is a challenge only in smaller tanks, but it is no different from keeping cichlid only tank. Water requirement is probably not a factor as sunfish, like most cichlids, can tolerate a wide range of water conditions.

 

[RD.]

Quite right, when forced, most fish can tolerate a wide variety of conditions in captivity.

 

[neutrino]

I've heard (or seen photos) of rock bass over a foot, though I've seen them more like 6-8 inches. From what I understand their size varies with environment, available food, etc., similar to trout. I would think, like many fish, being well fed in a tank with warmish water that they're going to put on some size. I'm not an expert on sunfish or their relatives in an aquarium setting and don't have personal experience regarding specifically which cichlids you can keep with them (I've read a bit), but rock bass are a somewhat chunky fish, often having to compete with or defend themselves from good sized bass, pike, and the like. I don't really see keeping an adult in a 55 with cichlids robust enough to deal with them-- my opinion, maybe there's the odd case where it works. But anyone I've seen keep sunfish with cichlids did it in a larger tank. Otherwise I've seen them by themselves (or with a pleco, etc.)

One thing I agree with that I think's been mentioned already-- it's a mistake to predict adult behavior based on juvenile fish, sometimes a big mistake. The same fish that spends its time hiding in the weeds with the other juveniles that are all just hoping not to get eaten can be a whole different animal as an adult.

 

[viejafish]

Here is what Wikipeia says about keeping Rock Bass in Aquarium:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_bass

In the aquarium


Rock bass can be kept in aquarium as small as 29 gallons for one however they prefer tanks closer to 55 gallon. Rock bass are similar in disposition to central American cichlids. They can be kept with yellow perch, bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish, smallmouth and largemouth bass not large enough to fit your rock bass in their mouth, convict cichlids, Jack Dempsey Cichlid, Green Terrors, and other fish similar to your rock bass in demeanor. Do not keep your rock bass with fish big enough to fit your fish in its mouth or small enough for your fish to swallow. Aquariums should be decorated with plenty of rockwork and several plants may be appreciated.

 

[Quo Vadis]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a geographical purist, that really wasn't what my original objections in this discussion were even based on. Ideal species temp issues aside, my comments were originally specifically about the footprint of a 55 gallon tank, and the comments about mixing oscars, vieja, carpintis, etc, with natives, from someone who barely has any experience with these species, let alone mixing them with natives. Keeping a 7" bluegill with a couple of stunted syns for a few months hardly equates to a success story. In fact, if I was attempting to condition a couple of seriously stunted synspilums, the last thing I would be doing is keeping them in a tank where the water was 70F. (or low 70's) I would dial up the temp, get their metabolism in high gear, increase their feed, and toss a LOT of clean water at them.

I keep the tank at 76F, and do a 85% water change each week, feed NLS, homemade frozen veggie food, tilapia, mealworms, and earthworms. The Vieja were stunted from the previous owner, and are starting to grow again, so I think they are just fine. My only point in mentioning that at all was that they are sexual mature, as is the bluegill. Maybe I missed something, and you have some experience you didn't mention, but it seems I have more experience mixing cichlids with sunfish than you, since I have actually done it, not once but in three different tanks, including with adult sunfish and cichlids. I know you have a lot of knowledge to offer, and have enjoyed your contributions on many threads, but you may want to reconsider how you address people who disagree with you.

 

[Quo Vadis]

For anyone interested:
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/12618-sunfish-and-cichlids/page__hl__+sunfish++cichlid

Most the people who posted that had tried mixing sunfish with cichlids reported success, though of course there could be people who tried mixing the two, failed and did not respond.

 

[RD.]

All we need now is someone to quote Shakespeare, and I think we can call this a wrap.