125 Stock Idea. Any Input?

[Steveo McNello]

How about this for my 125...

A school of 5-6 yellow perch, 3 black crappie, a few pumpkinseeds, and a few crayfish? I'm currently rebuilding the 125 but it will have tan sand and real plants.

Should I do anything to the stock? Change anything?

 

[warmouth]

Nice choices....those are some beautifull fish, but I must say thats a pretty big bioload, (yellow perch get from 12-17 inches, pumpkinseeds 11-16 in. ,Crappie 16-21 in.) you would need alot of filtration and water changes when they get close to fully grown. A good idea might be to cut one of the bigger fish species out or at least limit them to a pair apiece; you could then add a couple of stonecats or slender madtoms to the mix (smaller bioload and would occupy the bottom of the tank). Crappie are beautifull fish (and taste good!) but have a very large bioload and I believe Black Crappie need clearer water than White Crappie.

 

[Steveo McNello]

Well yeah I wouldn't let them all get fully grown. I'd rehome some. I am getting them all at 3 inch. And I know for a fact any pumpkinseed I get will not get 16 inches in my tank.

 

[warmouth]

Well yeah I wouldn't let them all get fully grown. I'd rehome some. I am getting them all at 3 inch. And I know for a fact any pumpkinseed I get will not get 16 inches in my tank.

They should be good for awhile then; 16 inches is their max size.....they are more likely to get around 12 inches if fed well in a big enough tank, but I feel its always good to plan ahead to their max possible size, and unfortunately many people dont.

 

[Steveo McNello]

NEW IDEA!!

I know I want to get 4-6 blackbanded sunfish. What would be cool to put with them? I know I want some catfish for the bottom.

 

[thomeski]

With bandeds U could go with bspots and minnow darter combo. Rather stay away from any of lepomis spiecies. As for catfish some mudtoms could work

 

[Steveo McNello]

Excellent. Those darters are pretty cool too!

 

[critter_bob]

You will want to avoid any larger, and more aggressvie fish if you have blackbanded sunfish. If they are your showpiece species, you can keep minnows, darters, killifish, madtoms, mudminnows, and the like. You will want to avoid any Lepomis, rockbass, bass, bullhead, or other species that get much larger.

 

[Steveo McNello]

I was thinking blackbands, pumpkinseeds, bluegills, and any variant of panfish besides the rock bass.

Or my other route is a few crappie and a few yellow perch.

 

[andyjs]

I was thinking blackbands, pumpkinseeds, bluegills, and any variant of panfish besides the rock bass.

Or my other route is a few crappie and a few yellow perch.

Pumpkinseeds and bluegill will probably be too large and mean to keep with black banded. Other Enneacanthus species and possibly smaller Lepomis would be better ideas.