Most social sunfish?

[Pudmuppy]

Hi everyone!

I'm about to get a75 or 90 gallon tank and I'm very torn as to what to keep! I'm wondering about setting up a native usa tank as I think sun fish look gorgeous and interesting to watch, however I like to keep groups of a few species rather than lots of individuals. I've heard sun fish can be pretty territorial especially when breeding, but is there a species that would get along reasonably well in a group of 4-6?

I would also be keeping some gobies/darters and flagfish, also perhaps shiners, mosquito fish or Rosy reds and possibly even a crayfish as I've heard that can be possible? (With the understanding there may be losses!)

I'm going to hit the forum and see what others have managed successfully, but I really would like a group of sunfish, and the darters would be a definite!

Thanks everyone

 

[wcgunns]

With darters you might try a group of Longear sunfish.

 

[PYRU]

The most social I've seen are bluegill but they get pretty large along with not being all that colorful. I personally like the Ozark longear, dollar, & orange spotted.

A group of 6 min is recommended. You have to keep a decent size group like African cichlids.

Google native species caresheets and you should find good info from Zimmerman who is a highly recommended breeder.

 

[tlindsey]

Hope this helpshttp://www.jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/fishcompatibility.htm

 

[pelleeklund]

I keep a lot of sunfish in my pond, and although I don’t think they are as vicious as centrals, they are still pretty aggressive. Good news is if you have a license they won’t cost you a thing so you can be free to experiment, I’d just watch putting together major size differences and keep the stock light until you get a feel for them. Green sunfish are pretty awesome, and since they have larger mouths it’s easier to catch them very small with a small hook and some bait. Either way it should be fun to collect and build your stock from the wild.

 

[Pudmuppy]

Thanks everyone for your great comments! I think I will hold off on the native tank for now as my interest is mostly in the darters, and it sounds like the sunfish may be too big and aggressive... perhaps in the future, I will set up a smaller darter only tank!

 

[tlindsey]

Thanks everyone for your great comments! I think I will hold off on the native tank for now as my interest is mostly in the darters, and it sounds like the sunfish may be too big and aggressive... perhaps in the future, I will set up a smaller darter only tank!

The Darters are very amusing. Micro bubbles and high temperature can be fatal. I presently have 1 Green Sided Darter in a 20 long feed frozen Mysis Shrimp alternate with Freeze Dried Bloodworms.