I really think where the clarification is needed is what you mean by saying "you can see whos kept sunfish here", to be perfectly honest I don't understand what or why you are stating that....my greens were very aggressive in a 38g.....the O-spots I had were not; I believe because of stocking and space considerations.
Rating panfish aggresiveness
- Thread starter ksauers
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I really think where the clarification is needed is what you mean by saying "you can see whos kept sunfish here", to be perfectly honest I don't understand what or why you are stating that....my greens were very aggressive in a 38g.....the O-spots I had were not; I believe because of stocking and space considerations.
There is a lot of good knowledge here no matter which side people are more opinionated on. I thank all of you for the advice. I am really into the look of predatory fish like a pickerel. But given that may not work in my stocklist, is there something that will? I've seen countless bowfin on aquabid lately, but as an angler, bowfin are **** fish to me. What other cool options are there?
I didn't mean anything negative in that statement as it was definitely not my intent. I guess I was trying (unsuccessfully) to point out that sunfish can be relatively unpredictable in terms of aggression and that folks who have experience with them always leave room for exception. In your case, you've had greenies that were very aggressive in a 38g, which would normally be too small for those fish. I've had greenies that were terrors in a 75g and hated anything I put in with them. I've also got a couple greenies that would fit perfectly in your 38g and would be perfect community fish.
I guess what's important in regards to the OP is that he realizes that sunfish don't always fit a particular mold and aggression can vary greatly. Brandon pointed out in his post some sunnies that can be pretty aggressive, and although he's not wrong, you could easily flip his hierarchy around in other instances. It's good to have a rule of thumb on what normally works with sunnies, but be prepared when they don't act "normally". Redbreast, longear, bluegill, greenies, and dollar sunfish tend to be the most aggressive, but even among those you can find model citizens sometimes. It's just best to get 'em young, give them the proper space and see what happens.
Again, I didn't mean anything negative by my post. I guess it just didn't come out the way I intended.
Grass pickerel will work in a 75g on their own and are awesome fish to have if you're into them. They can be a bit boring unless they're chasing food though. I would just be worried about sunfish harassing it and out competing it for food. I've only had pickerel once before though, so maybe someone with more experience could chime in.
I agree, that's very true, even in the 38g theres was some Greens who were more submissive and 2 who were very aggressive.
The ones I mentioned had some pretty interesting differences as well. They came from two different streams that were very close but still completely isolated from each other and were both young of the year last summer. One is evil and is pushing 7" while the other is docile and pushing 4" at the most. Kept in the same size tanks and fed the same stuff. The small one was interacting with me and eating from my fingers just weeks after I caught him while the bigger one has always been an ass lol. Stuff like this is what makes sunfish fascinating to me.
