What would you do with a 55 gal?

[o5b0rn3b]

I have an empty 55gal 13"x48" and I don't know what to do with it. I'm not even sure of what all of my options are. I'm leaning towards a lone green sunfish unless someone can talk me into something else. I'm not a huge fan of the whole wetpet idea, I just love the personality of a green, who doesn't? Haha. I'm assuming there's no way to keep a green with anything in a 55 safely. My last green was a monster.

 

[lizardboy]

you could do 3 or so pumpkinseeds in there, i think

 

[Duckman77]

My 55 has a lone northern longear sunfish and about 20 southern redbelly dace. It has been a very good combination for me. If I had an empty 55 I would consider a nice group of red shiners (rainbow dace) and/or spotfin shiners.

 

[Chub_by]

I would go for a mini monster comm- something like a few madtoms for the bottom, a pair of smaller sunfish for the middle regions and a few topminnows should look amazing!

 

[divemaster99]

I'll always support Green Sunfish, that said, if you can find a female they're a bit less aggressive. I'm currently keeping my female Green in a 30 long and there used to be 4 Creek Chubs in there until I threw in a bulkhead which killed them all, only to be eaten by a raccoon in the pond I moved him to afterwards LOL.

Aside from Sunnies, look in to Minnows, Dace, Shiners, smaller Chubs, Killies, Topminnows, smaller Madtoms, Darters, etc. All of which make great stream community fish.

 

[o5b0rn3b]

Nobody is worried about some minnows or dace getting brutalized with any sort of sunfish? I'm only really familiar with the aggression of a green and I have no idea how far down aggression levels go with something like a pumpkinseed. Do I not have to worry about that with a pumpkinseed?

 

[Duckman77]

I have northern longears in 3 different tanks right now. All three tanks have minnows, dace, and/or darters and the longears show no aggression towards their tankmates. The only aggression I did see was between longears, so I keep only one large longear in a tank.

Not sure how it would work out with other sunfish. I was even worried about the longears until I tried it.

 

[Chub_by]

My pumpkinseed don't even go after 0.5" baby fish. Granted they are in a pond which is slightly bigger than a 55, but if they are well fed, they are usually too lazy to hunt.

 

[MN_Rebel]

I won't house any minnows or any sunfish with a green sunfish, unless you can find some big golden shiners or Creek chubs. A stonecat will works just fine and it's possible to house some larger killifish species such as northern studfish with your green sunfish. I guess some posters on here had forgotten about green sunfish's large mouth and is a bit predatory than most sunfish species.

 

[divemaster99]

Nobody is worried about some minnows or dace getting brutalized with any sort of sunfish? I'm only really familiar with the aggression of a green and I have no idea how far down aggression levels go with something like a pumpkinseed. Do I not have to worry about that with a pumpkinseed?

Hardy Cyprinids that won't fit in its mouth are your best bet. For me, creek chubs were the most available species that meets those criteria so I went with them. If you want a species you can keep with the smaller, more delicate Minnows, look in to Enneacanthus species Sunfish.