Greetings all!
I have a 65g sunfish tank, and I'm looking for a few stock ideas. It currently houses two young longears (reasonably certain they're a M/F pair), one young (possibly female?) warmouth sunfish, and one twig catfish. At some point soon, I'll be getting a couple of margined madtoms. I may also have to remove one of the longears, as they aren't getting along terribly well. I used to have 6, but then the social structure collapsed (four young unknowns turned out to be males and all hit puberty at the same time), so I just kept the two smallest in hopes of growing them up on high-quality food and ending up with a tame, colorful pair of sunnies. Doesn't seem to be working. If they don't settle down soon, I'll rehome the female and just keep the little male.
These are Southern longears, not Northerns, so they get maybe 6" max. They're kinda jerks towards each other, but they usually ignore the warmouth, and they should totally most non-sunfish that aren't edible.
The warmouth is a bit of a concern because she already has a large mouth (she's maybe 4" and was targeting 3" shiners) and she's just going to keep growing. I'm told that a full-sized warmouth could probably engulf a golf ball. Aside from that, though, she's harmless. In fact, she's extremely peaceful- her response to a territorial display from a longear is to just hunker down and spike out her dorsal fin. I'm not certain how she'd respond to another warmouth or a similar fish, though.
The twig cat, despite being skinny, is safe from the warmouth because she doesn't realize that it's actually a fish. Whenever it wiggles near her, she kind of wanders over and just looks around, trying to figure out what that was.
The catfish are food hogs, but their mouths don't compare to that of the warmouth.
I typically feed frozen food, as our house is gluten-free due to a severe intolerance in the family. Fish food with gluten in it isn't worth the trouble of avoiding cross-contamination. I alternate between bloodworms and krill, with the occasional clam thrown in. The twig cat fends for itself, and I've been keeping an eye on its stomach to be sure it stays healthy.
The tank doesn't have too many hiding places. It's mostly just a bunch of sticks, with a few pieces of driftwood, a few plants (real and fake), and a big jar for hiding spots. There are places for fish to go if they don't want to be out in the open, but a skittish fish might not be terribly happy.
I want to keep the stock level away from the heavy side. The warmouth will be the biggest fish, and could possibly reach at least 8". The longear(s) will reach 6", max. The madtoms will reach maybe 6", and they're fairly slender. Estimates of twig cat size vary a lot- anywhere from 5" to 8". 7" is probably a good assumption, but it's an extremely slender fish- a 7" twig would probably have less mass than a 4" sunny. I think I'd prefer not to get a fish that'll get much larger than 6", unless it's a skinny thing.
Fish I've considered:
1: Long-tail banjo cat. Pros: Weird-looking, peaceful. Cons: Possibly shy, messy.
2: Leopard ctenopoma. Pros: Weird-looking, probably peaceful to anything inedible, pretty pattern. Cons: Messy, on the larger side, might disagree with warmouth.
3: Frogmouth catfish. Pros: Incredibly weird-looking. Cons: Might not see it, might eat the madtoms, might be hard to feed, might be very hard to obtain.
4: Chamelion whiptail. Pros: Beautiful, weird, peaceful. Cons: Might not see it, don't know where the heck to get one.
5: Striped Raphael catfish. Pros: Cute, peaceful, durable, easy to obtain. Cons: Might hide, kinda messy.
As you can see, I like weird fish. Since this tank has gone from a native tank to a "these are cool fish" tank, I'd like something out of the ordinary.
Anyone have any input on those guys, especially the leopard?
I'm looking for a fish that won't attack anything I already have, can stand up for itself somewhat (longears won't target it specifically but may be cranky at it), isn't terribly fragile as far as water parameters (the tank isn't filthy, but it's a sunfish/catfish tank, so it's not going to be pristine), isn't horribly expensive ($60 is about max), can most likely be found for sale more than once in a blue moon (though I'm reasonably close to Austin Aqua-dome, and they have some really rare fish sometimes), and isn't horribly fussy as far as food. I'd be willing to feed live ghost shrimp for a little while, but I need something that'll eat frozen and stay eating frozen once it settles in, and I really don't know how I could get live ghosts down to something in hiding without the warmouth engulfing them.
I welcome any and all (reasonably polite) input. I've been keeping fish for almost a decade, and I've been keeping them fairly well (as in, not acting purely on lousy LFS advice and out-of-date books) for almost 9 years. I have at least a decent idea of what I'm doing, but up 'till January, I'd never kept anything considerably over 3" aside from a twig catfish.
I have a 65g sunfish tank, and I'm looking for a few stock ideas. It currently houses two young longears (reasonably certain they're a M/F pair), one young (possibly female?) warmouth sunfish, and one twig catfish. At some point soon, I'll be getting a couple of margined madtoms. I may also have to remove one of the longears, as they aren't getting along terribly well. I used to have 6, but then the social structure collapsed (four young unknowns turned out to be males and all hit puberty at the same time), so I just kept the two smallest in hopes of growing them up on high-quality food and ending up with a tame, colorful pair of sunnies. Doesn't seem to be working. If they don't settle down soon, I'll rehome the female and just keep the little male.
These are Southern longears, not Northerns, so they get maybe 6" max. They're kinda jerks towards each other, but they usually ignore the warmouth, and they should totally most non-sunfish that aren't edible.
The warmouth is a bit of a concern because she already has a large mouth (she's maybe 4" and was targeting 3" shiners) and she's just going to keep growing. I'm told that a full-sized warmouth could probably engulf a golf ball. Aside from that, though, she's harmless. In fact, she's extremely peaceful- her response to a territorial display from a longear is to just hunker down and spike out her dorsal fin. I'm not certain how she'd respond to another warmouth or a similar fish, though.
The twig cat, despite being skinny, is safe from the warmouth because she doesn't realize that it's actually a fish. Whenever it wiggles near her, she kind of wanders over and just looks around, trying to figure out what that was.
The catfish are food hogs, but their mouths don't compare to that of the warmouth.
I typically feed frozen food, as our house is gluten-free due to a severe intolerance in the family. Fish food with gluten in it isn't worth the trouble of avoiding cross-contamination. I alternate between bloodworms and krill, with the occasional clam thrown in. The twig cat fends for itself, and I've been keeping an eye on its stomach to be sure it stays healthy.
The tank doesn't have too many hiding places. It's mostly just a bunch of sticks, with a few pieces of driftwood, a few plants (real and fake), and a big jar for hiding spots. There are places for fish to go if they don't want to be out in the open, but a skittish fish might not be terribly happy.
I want to keep the stock level away from the heavy side. The warmouth will be the biggest fish, and could possibly reach at least 8". The longear(s) will reach 6", max. The madtoms will reach maybe 6", and they're fairly slender. Estimates of twig cat size vary a lot- anywhere from 5" to 8". 7" is probably a good assumption, but it's an extremely slender fish- a 7" twig would probably have less mass than a 4" sunny. I think I'd prefer not to get a fish that'll get much larger than 6", unless it's a skinny thing.
Fish I've considered:
1: Long-tail banjo cat. Pros: Weird-looking, peaceful. Cons: Possibly shy, messy.
2: Leopard ctenopoma. Pros: Weird-looking, probably peaceful to anything inedible, pretty pattern. Cons: Messy, on the larger side, might disagree with warmouth.
3: Frogmouth catfish. Pros: Incredibly weird-looking. Cons: Might not see it, might eat the madtoms, might be hard to feed, might be very hard to obtain.
4: Chamelion whiptail. Pros: Beautiful, weird, peaceful. Cons: Might not see it, don't know where the heck to get one.
5: Striped Raphael catfish. Pros: Cute, peaceful, durable, easy to obtain. Cons: Might hide, kinda messy.
As you can see, I like weird fish. Since this tank has gone from a native tank to a "these are cool fish" tank, I'd like something out of the ordinary.
Anyone have any input on those guys, especially the leopard?
I'm looking for a fish that won't attack anything I already have, can stand up for itself somewhat (longears won't target it specifically but may be cranky at it), isn't terribly fragile as far as water parameters (the tank isn't filthy, but it's a sunfish/catfish tank, so it's not going to be pristine), isn't horribly expensive ($60 is about max), can most likely be found for sale more than once in a blue moon (though I'm reasonably close to Austin Aqua-dome, and they have some really rare fish sometimes), and isn't horribly fussy as far as food. I'd be willing to feed live ghost shrimp for a little while, but I need something that'll eat frozen and stay eating frozen once it settles in, and I really don't know how I could get live ghosts down to something in hiding without the warmouth engulfing them.
I welcome any and all (reasonably polite) input. I've been keeping fish for almost a decade, and I've been keeping them fairly well (as in, not acting purely on lousy LFS advice and out-of-date books) for almost 9 years. I have at least a decent idea of what I'm doing, but up 'till January, I'd never kept anything considerably over 3" aside from a twig catfish.
