Sunfish in a 75

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R

redchaser

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 23, 2008
262
5
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louisiana
www.redchaser.com
Hey guy's,

I've been lurking here for a while, but the "you haven't posted in a while, please post something" message at the top of the screen finally guilted me into posting. I'm about to set up a 75 gallon tank. I'm building the stand right now, once that's done I'm going to buy the tank (a LFS has them on sale), then I'll have to wait a little while till I have the cash for filtration and accessories. My plan is to stock it with local wild caught sunfish. There is a stretch of the Calcasieu River here that has the most amazinly colored longears that I've ever seen. The tank will be heavily filtered, either an FX5 or an eheim 2262 (overkill I know but that's what hobbies are for). Anyway, I'd like to put a couple of longears, a bluegill, plus some local minnow's and/or mollies in the tank. Is that too much for a 75?

How many sunfish of this size would you reccomend?

Thanks.

Ron
 
I say skip the bluegill and keep to longears or dollars (I think you have both down there). Bluegill are big and rowdy, and will limit what smaller fish you can keep in the tank. If you have plenty of cover you can easily keep 4-5 longears in the tank.

Be sure to set up structure in the tank so that it creates visual obstacles; otherwise you may have a dominant fish harassing the lower-ranked fish endlessly. Also, if you don't intend to breed the fish, keep all males to limit aggression (the most brightly colored fish are male).

Longears may eat smaller fish, but usually won't if they're well-fed. Most kinds of shiners and larger darters do well with longears; just do some netting or trapping and see what you find.

Also, be sure to check out http://forum.nanfa.org/; it has tons of info on keeping natives, and is a good place to find collecting partners too.
 
Thanks NOTO, good info. This spring I'll catch my longears on hook and line, longears love hitting poppers and dry flies. I'll use small barbless hooks to get them in good shape. I also plan on bringing a fine mesh dipnet to scoop around the same general area for smaller fish, crawfish etc. I intend to set up a minature biotope of a small specific area. I'm going to try to collect everything for my tank from that specific area. There is a small side chanel off of the river that produces the best looking longears I've seen. It seems to be a population specific to this area, but they are there year end and year out. I also see blugill spawning beds in the same area every spring and assorted smaller fish, minnows, etc that I haven't paid enough attention to for identification yet.
 
I find that when stocking sunfishes its best to slightly overstock, similar to how you would African cichlids. This allows a greater dispersal of aggression and hinders any one fish's ability to establish a permanent territory. I would also have a higher ratio of females to males as males are generally more aggressive. They'll not only harass each other but any female not willing to breed. If I were you I would just go with the longears as bluegills get quite a bit larger. As for numbers, its up to you and your water change schedual. I would go with about six, perhaps two males and four females. Longears are fairly easy to sex when mature, males will be more colorful.
 
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