75 gallon help!!!

[stellyj11]

Hey yall! First off I just wanna say that I am new to the native scene but have experience with tropicals. I love this website and have already learned so much from it and look forward to learning more! That being said, I am in trouble here. I have a 75 gallon tank and wide eyes that have found a bunch of fish that I want! I was always a cichlid lover but these natives are just stunning so now I'm torn! I'm trying to see if I can keep natives with CA/SA cichlids and a bichir. So heres my tentative list:
1- Jack Dempsey
1- Green Terror
1- Bichir Delhezi
1- Pumpkinseed Sunfish
1- Longear Sunfish
Another problem that I have run into is the availability of sunfish in my area. I currently attend East Carolina University in North Carolina and will be moving here from Chesapeake, Virginia. So any places that I could get sunfish around either area would work. Thank yall so much for helping me out on this one in advance!

 

[tanker19]

Never kept the ones your looking for but did have 6 or so green sunfish from 1,2" when put with 3 6" piranha at 78f so temp is good but there grew super fast n very greedy eaters and would hold there own with the p's so I would think u would b good hope this helps
They seemed to do well but it only lasted a few months tank was a a friends house n he kille most every thing being a dumb ass after the p's breed n he half drained the take n let it sit with out power a couple days when he attempted to collect the eggs

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[warmouth]

I would not keep those sunfish with those cichlids due to the fact their aggression levels and temp requirements are so different

 

[stellyj11]

I was planning on keeping it solidly at 75-76 degrees which is in the range for all of the fish oh my gosh your friend >.< I promise I'll take better care of them than that.

 

[crappiekeeper]

Im in Raleigh, so I dont know the Greenville area too well, but most lakes in NC have pumpkinseeds but i don't see as many long ears. Pretty soon they will be spawning in shallow water so you can sight fish for them. Hope this helps.

 

[warmouth]

temps sound good, but green terrors can be very aggressive and get 9-14 inches long where pumpkinseeds get 6-12 inches long and are semi-aggressive; the only sunfish I would keep with gt's with are large green or redbreast sunnies.

 

[stellyj11]

Well I was planning on using Zimmerman's as a back up plan? Is his stuff normally good? What about longears temperament?

 

[warmouth]

Well I was planning on using Zimmerman's as a back up plan? Is his stuff normally good? What about longears temperament?

Zimmermans is excellent both his fish and their service, other good native LFS's are Sachs aquaculture, Jonahs aquarium and Btdarters. There are 6 subspecies of Longears, the biggest and most aggressive is the Mo river valley longears (a subspecies of the Central Longeared sunny) they get 5-8inches long and have the temperament about the same as the Pumpkinseeds (individual aggression levels vary), a 75g will not be big enough for a GT to have tankmates other than other aggressive fish if it is way over filtered and stocked. Most sunfish are semi-aggressive, Green sunfish and many Redbreast Sunfish are aggressive enough to not bullied to death by the GT if they are larger than your green terror when u stock them; in a 125g with cover (plants, driftwood, rocks) and dithers the Pumpkinseeds and Longears would stand a better chance.

 

[stellyj11]

I understand what youre saying. I'm beginning to LIGHTLY consider going with a full native tank maybe bring in a - Warmouth, Shadow Bass, Rock Bass, Mo Longear, Central Longear, and dithers?

 

[Chicxulub]

I understand what youre saying. I'm beginning to LIGHTLY consider going with a full native tank maybe bring in a - Warmouth, Shadow Bass, Rock Bass, Mo Longear, Central Longear, and dithers?

An all natives tank would be cool. I wanna do another one this summer.

Just FYI, a warmouth, shadow bass and rock bass are all basically the same thing. Even experts have a very hard time telling them apart, they're diagnosed as much by where they're from as by morphological traits.