Feeding and Breeding Sunfish?

[Pyramid_Party]

Hi,

I got a tank of 6 Dollar Sunfish. There seems to be one dominant male. He is about 3 inches and really colorful with blues and reds. They are all pretty aggressive with each other. Soon I am going to get rid of some of them and just keep the dominant male and a female. I am not sure how to identify a female though. But I worry that there only being 2 fish that the male will harass the other fish even worse. Do Sunfish "pair up"? I hear they don't. I hear the male makes a nest and coaxes a female into it. And once eggs are laid she is chased away. Also, I have been trying lots of different food with my sunfish. Today I picked up some "Can o Crickets" which is for reptiles. But the ingredients say that it is just crickets with nothing added. Is it safe for fish to eat?

Here is the can

 

[Biggreenavalanche]

Yep, they will eat a lot worse in nature...

 

[Gill Blue]

mine love freeze dried crickets, when they were smaller I would crush them up, now the biggest swallow them whole and the smaller rip them apart by themselves. I bought these



are yours dried?

as far as the nesting goes, I've read what you posted. my louisianna longear would scoop out a gravel pit, but no females ever came, so he never got too violent. that's why I went with stone substrate when I upgraded, I'm hoping to discourage nesting behavior. I really don't need another 10,000 -15,000 more fish.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

No the crickets are moist. There is a lid that locks in the moisture. Yeah I may just keep the dominant male. I got other fish to keep me busy with babies. I wish I could keep all 6 Dollar Sunfish though.