I Was Afraid This Would Happen

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divemaster99

Dovii
MFK Member
Jan 10, 2014
4,795
385
107
Pittsburgh, PA
At the end of May I collected a pair of Greenside Darters, a young female Green Sunfish, and a 4" Creek Chub at my local creek. I put them in a 30 long and within a day the Green sunfish had murdered the chub although she paid little attention to the darters due to the fact that they didn't compete for food and posed little territorial threat. Well now the sunfish has put on at least 1" and the darters have gotten a bit bigger. I get home from vacation today and all of them are still happy and healthy but I noticed that the green is slightly bigger now than when i left with more vivid, darker colors and my male darter has a tear in his 2nd dorsal fin. Well I can put two and two together to figure out whats going on. I knew this was bound to happen but I was hoping to already have the darters into the riffle tank I'm making before aggression popped up. Well I'm still 1 week at the BARE minimum from having it ready so I need to calm the sunny down until then. I think part of the reason may be that when I say I have athletic Greenside Darters, I mean it! I hear people on NANFA people say that their greensides don't ever leave the bottom and have to be target fed while my two swim up to the top of the tank even when it's not feeding time and have to trouble whatsoever getting food. Regardless I need some suggestions on how to calm down the Green Sunfish or I'm going to have to put them in a rubbermaid bin until I can finish the riffle tank.
 
Turned off the tank light and the lights in the room they're in, getting way to aggressive. I'm going to have to do something within a day or two otherwise I'm not going to have any darters left :(
 
Right now my plan is to work hyperactiveoy and get the riffle tank done. Today I'm hoping to go to my creek and collect all the substrate and decor (pretty much all rocks) that I need and prepare them (clean them). Then tomorrow I'll give all the fry I have in the 20 tall (the soon to be riffle tank) to the guy who owns my favorite LFS and when I get home I'll out in all the substrate and decor and transfer the darters. I figured the darter already had a fin tear when I got home so this had to have been happening all week anyway so I'm hoping they can last a little while longer with the sunfish.
 
Have the gravel in the 20 tall and all the fry are moved out. Water was very muddy (1" visibility) so I did a 50% with siphoning and now I can see about 4 or 5" in. Since there's no fish in it I have 4 adult trapdoor snails in to keep the tank cycled. I'll be adding the rock piles in once it's clear enough to see the back of the tank where they're going and once it's all cleared up and scaped properly I'll add the darters. Got a lot more done today than I expected :)

image.jpgSorry for the glare, it's terrible in this room.

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