Sunfish Growth Rates

[Tunaslayer]

Go in your garden grab a shovel and start digging. Earthworms,redworms, or garden worms will make your sunfish blow up in size.

 

[Cu455]

At the 1inch size I would feed them small scuds, brine shrimp and small worms. Rays is right you will have to thaw the worms out (mine never would eat frozen unless it was thawed). When they get big enough to convert to pellets I would soak them in tuna oil or fish oil (just long enough to soften them....you dont want them to fall apart) for a couple of months to get them to eat the pellets. Yellow Bullheads grow very fast for the first 2 years, and will reach 5-8inches long the first year and inbetween 11-14 inches the 2nd year, after that theyre growth will slow to only about 1-2 inches a year. Your big sunnies (the green and the Pumpkinseed) will grow 1.5-2inches a year for the first 5 years and abit slower after that. Your medium sized sunnies will grow about 1-1.5 inches for the first 5 yrs. I hope you have a large tank with plenty of hiding spots (rocks, clay pots, driftwood etc.)......otherwise I believe alot of your sunnies will fall prey to your Yellow Bullhead when he reaches the 1-2 yr mark. These growth rates were taken from the books American aquarium fishes and Fishes of Missouri. In my personal experience I had 2 green Sunfish in a 39g. that I caught at around 4 inches; one grew about a inch in a half a year and the other one grew an amazing 2-3 inches a year until he outgrew the tank and killed his buddy, I then had to put him in a friends pond (Greens are very territorial). With a large tank I could have put more rocks and driftwood in and kept dithers and would probably still have the Greens.

I have had my Pumpkinseeds, bluegills and bullheads for a year and these estimates were pretty close to my fish. My tank is unheated, in a unheated basement and the temperature droped below 60. I feed very little during the winter. During the cold months the pumpkinseeds grew a lot quicker then the bluegills. As the temperature increased the bluegills caught up with the pumkinseed.

The bluegill went from a tiny, transparent, fish no longer then a pennies diameter. A year later it was 3 inches. The pumpkinseed was a little smaller then the bluegill but got eaten before I was able to measure it. The bull heads when from ~3 inches to ~7-8 inches. The bullheads are white.

At about 10 months my sunfish started to fall pray to my catfish.

I also want to add something. Alot of my sunfish barely grew but fell prey to the catfish. Since only the large were able to avoid getting eaten my states were skewed. Right now I am growing sunfish fry out with no predators to see how it turn out.

 

[Drx6x]

my alpha male mo long ear went from .5 inches to 5.5 and it hasn't even been a year yet the sub dominant male 5. to 3 inches and the female .5 to 2.5 deit of thawed bloodworms, thawed krill(need to break them up some), carnivore pellets, and earthworms.

 

[warmouth]

I have had my Pumpkinseeds, bluegills and bullheads for a year and these estimates were pretty close to my fish. My tank is unheated, in a unheated basement and the temperature droped below 60. I feed very little during the winter. During the cold months the pumpkinseeds grew a lot quicker then the bluegills. As the temperature increased the bluegills caught up with the pumkinseed.

The bluegill went from a tiny, transparent, fish no longer then a pennies diameter. A year later it was 3 inches. The pumpkinseed was a little smaller then the bluegill but got eaten before I was able to measure it. The bull heads when from ~3 inches to ~7-8 inches. The bullheads are white.

At about 10 months my sunfish started to fall pray to my catfish.

I also want to add something. Alot of my sunfish barely grew but fell prey to the catfish. Since only the large were able to avoid getting eaten my states were skewed. Right now I am growing sunfish fry out with no predators to see how it turn out.

In my opinion large Bullheads (Black, Brown, Yellow) and Catfish should not be kept with Small and Medium sized Lepomis, since they outgrow them so fast. Stonecats, small bullheads (Snail /Spotted) and Madtoms are good tankmates for the small and medium species of Sunfish.

 

[Anthony Nolet]

This little guy went from that size to about 8" in a year or so. He's kept with a bunch of sunfish and the only one he ever bothered was my bluegill.