Sunfish
- Thread starter Silvertongue700
- Start date
If you ask me, it would not be a good idea. It's been years since I (illegally and somewhat unwittingly, but nonetheless) kept sunfish, but my guess from my experience is that the weather loaches would be bullied a lot.
Agreed with above. I think if anything, the pumpkin seed would be the best bet as they're smaller and potentially less capable of hurting the dojo loaches. I would at the very least have some secure structures in there to give the loaches somewhere to hide.
When I was keeping sunfish, the pumpkinseeds were around 5 times as aggressive ('aggressive' defined as persistence in tankmate bulliying) as the bluegills. It might be down to the individual fish, but I think it is worth noting.
I have relatively limited sunfish experience. I figured them being smaller might make them less capable of harming the loaches, but I stand corrected if that is the case. I think some better native fish tankmates could be pygmy sunfish, minnows, shiners, or daters. But now that I think of it more, I'm not sure how good of an idea it is having a long, slender, worm shaped fish in with sunfish...
Alright I'm convinced it wouldn't work. I am interested in other coldwater species. I believe shiners are illegal in CA but may be wrong?
Wrong side of the country, I'm not sure what you have over there nor am I sure of the laws.
I believe rainbow shiners aren’t banned. If not, perhaps check out some cold water killifish.