Can I have a Sunfish?

Hello,
I am new to this site. I have a question about sunfish. I have a common Pleco. I had an Oscar that just recently passed on. My question is, could I get a sunfish with my pleco in the tank? The pleco is about 8 inches long. Would the sunfish hurt the pleco? Is there a particular sunfish that would get along in there with the pleco? In addition, would the temperature be another concern? My tank is 60 gallons. I am searching for a 125-gallon tank. The sunfish and the pleco would be the only two fish I would put in the tank. Thank you for any help on this.

any sunfish would do but what I would do is not get 1 but get 5-6 smaller species of sunfish(dollar,bluespoted,banded,blackbanded,longear or bantams) just to name a few and I wouldnt think they would mess with the pleco
the temp should be no problem I have a 1inch bluegill in a tropical tank thats at 81degrees
pm if you have any more questions

I am keeping dollars at about 78 and they are doing great! Better than any of the other sunfish I have raised infact. Oh and if you are going to keep sunfish diffinatley check out our vendors here. I have personally ordered from both KSI and Ohio Valley and they are both great guys with an excellent selection. Also the dollars I recieved from KSI are honestly the brightest I have ever seen at such a small size!

Chad

I'm sure we can give you some help with sunfish as many of us here keep them. It may help though if we know where you are located and if you plan to catch them yourself or if you would like to purchase or trade for some. I can't see any sunfish species causing much of a problem with a pleco. As far as choosing a species there is some things to consider because as they may all get allong with a pleco but they do not all get along with one another. For example it would probably not be good to keep the smallest species (blackbanded sunfish) with some of the larger ones (bluegill, warmouth, redear sunfish) or more aggressive species (dollar, longear, pumpkinseed, and green sunfish). For some example of pictures of almost all of the Lepomis genus (which are the more typical or atleast what people usually think of as sunfish including bluegill) take a look at the ones I posted in response to the thread keeping bluegills. Once you have done a little looking around and decided what your interested in post again and I'm sure we can help you out with compatability of different species, and help you get them.

I am keeping dollars at about 78 and they are doing great! Better than any of the other sunfish I have raised in fact. Oh and if you are going to keep sunfish diffinatley check out our vendors here. I have personally ordered from both KSI and Ohio Valley and they are both great guys with an excellent selection. Also the dollars I recieved from KSI are honestly the brightest I have ever seen at such a small size!

I got my dollars from KSI at the same time you did, Chad. They are currently in one of my basement tanks, although I will probably be moving them upstairs soon. I have tanks on every floor of my house (basement, ground floor, second floor, and my daughter's attic bedroom). The basement tank the dollars are in is at about 62 degrees right now. It is also 8 degrees outside right now. The basement gets warmer and colder with the weather, but generally the temperature in that tank is probably 62 to 65 degrees this time of year. The dollars are just starting to show a pretty purple operculum, and tiny shiny cyan specks on the body, but I would not say they are bright yet. They are well fed, and the tank is underpopulated with no water quality problems.

So I am wondering, does the water temperature effect the rate at which the fish color up? Does it effect the amount of coloration? Does it effect the growth rate?

Also housed in that tank are a pair of orangespotted sunfish from KSI, and a pair of YOY rock bass that I caught in Ohio in October. The YOY rock bass were originally about the same size; one has grown considerably more than the other. The orangespotted sunfish have grown appreciably since they have been in there.

The orangespotted sunfish are especially fun to watch at feeding time, by the way. They generally hide in the plants and come out at feeding time. They don't like to come to the surface for food, but occasionally do. The like to sit down low, just off to the side of the OTB filter, and wait for food to be swept down by the current from the filter discharge chute. They gladly take freeze-dried food, and it doesn't seem like it has to be moving, but they would rather take the food from low in the tank than to come to the surface. It is quite fun watching this.

I do not know if you have ever picked up a pleco or not. Let me tell you the sunfish would not harm them in the least. Pleco's are hard as stone. And I say that without exageration. They would be no problem as far as the sunfish hurting them. The only problem I can see is temp. I do not know the long term health of a pleco in room temp water. I think it would be OK but not sure. They have them in lower Florida and I can only assume the water would be like room temp water down there but I just do not know. Hope this helps a little anyway.

I am located in northern Minnesota. I have no plans as far as catching or buying at this point so any suggestions would be helpful. What would be better? Catching some or ordering some. I do not know any place to order. I looked at the pictures and these are the ones I liked,

Green Sunfish, Pumpkinseed, Redbreast Sunfish, Central Longear Sunfish, Northern Longear Sunfish, Orange spotted Sunfish, Western Dollar Sunfish, Blackspotted Sunfish.
I do not like doing tank cleanings. I know they need to be done and I do them, I just dont like it. I would like to get a sunfish or sunfishes with that in mind. I do not mind having only one but if more is a better way to go, I am open to that to. The most important thing to me at this time is getting all the information I need to care for them properly. I need to also get my tank set up so the environment will be a good home for sunfish. Therefore, any advice on what kind of bottom (rocks) and where to get driftwood and anything else would be very helpful.
I have a 60 gallon and have been looking for the past 2 months for a 125 gallon. I am not sure if I should go ahead and get some fish in my 60 then transfer them when I get a bigger tank or find a 125 then get it ready for some fish. Or just keep the 60 and add one sunfish.
Thank you

I would say if you are set on just getting one sunfish, get either a pumpkinseed or redbreast. They get larger than the others you mentioned and look nice as well. The rest of those (with possible exception of green) are just not very big and might not look right in a big old tank.

In my 75g tank I have a GreenxBluegill, 2 longears, and a green sunfish and at one time I did have a pleco in there to clean up some algae. I kept the tank at about 70 degrees. Even with these fish I only cleaned the tank once a week, with gravel vacs each time, and it only took me a half an hour. If you don't have a python then you need to get one, they make cleaning much easier.

Green Sunfish, Pumpkinseed, Redbreast Sunfish, Central Longear Sunfish, Northern Longear Sunfish, Orange spotted Sunfish, Western Dollar Sunfish, Blackspotted Sunfish.

Out of the above I beleive you probably have pumpkinseeds, green sunfish, and maybe northern longears in your area. I would think the pumpkinseeds would be the easiest for you to catch. Weather you want to catch your own or buy them depends on weather or not you are a fisherman and or have a net or would like to learn how to net or catch fish hook and line. If your not interested in doing these things I would suggest buying them. If you do get a 125 I would think you could put 2-3 of each of the species you chose except I think I would take out the orange spotted from the list because they are the smallest and probably also the least aggressive. The dollar sunfish are also smaller than the rest but are a little more aggressive and would stand up for themselves better against the larger species. Also when keeping any kind of sunfish it is good to have lots of cover in the tank so they each can have their own hiding place, this really helps to cut down on any aggression problems. It does not matter much what type of cover (rocks, wood, plants) just that you have plenty of it. I hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions to help you make your decision.

Thank you for all the great information. I would like to ask another question. My tank
ph is about 8.4, the tap water ph is 7.0. What would I need to do to make this safe for the sunfish?
Do I need to have buckets of water sitting around for days to lower the pH? peaple that have large 200 gallon or more tanks would be there all day putting that water back in the tank with buckets. Is there something I can add to the water to lower it? or does this not effect sunfish?

I am kinda confused about this pH thing. I have a siphoning tube I hook to a hose and it goes right outside, (works great) I also put water back in the tank with the hose connected to my sink. It sounds like putting water straight in that way could harm my fish. I think that might be why my Oscar died. But the pleco is doing great. Maybe that is not a issue with the pleco. I hope I am not asking to many questions, I just need to get this right this time. It was very hard to loose my Oscar after 2 years and I want to make sure I am ready to do this and do it right.

Also, yes I love to fish in the summers. So maybe I should just catch some.

So I am wondering, does the water temperature effect the rate at which the fish color up? Does it effect the amount of coloration? Does it effect the growth rate?

I am not sure about if it effects the rate at which they color up but it deffinatly effects the rate that they grow which in turn means more color. They older/bigger the fish are the more color they get.

Chad

I don't think 8.4 would be too high for the species you chose. I know that some of the smaller sunfish (blackbanded, banded, and bluespotted Enneacanthus Genus) live in acidic waters below 7 but the streams in my area which have several of the species you listed the PH is above 8 probably closer to 8.5. Recently skipjack started a thread under general discussion regarding PH if you would like to see more about that.

I know that there are quite a few on here who do the same as far as putting water straight into the tank, including myself. As long as you add enough declorinator ( just read what the bottle recomends) for the amount of water you changed out you should be fine. I usually add 1.5 times the amount the directions say just to be safe and I know others double the amount. Many of us also add salt (make sure it is just salt has no iodine in it often table salt has iodine) usually 1-2 tablespoons per 5 gallons, atleast thats the amount I use.

As far as temperature sunfish will be fine at just about any temperature between 40 and low 80's as they are used to the changing seasons in the wild but will show the most color when fed well and the temperature is in the mid to upper 70's because that is their breeding conditions. Also often males show more color, most of the pictures in the thread that I directed you too on the other page were male fish. Also they will grow the fastest if kept at 70 or a little above (prety much room temperature).

I do not know if you have ever picked up a pleco or not. Let me tell you the sunfish would not harm them in the least. Pleco's are hard as stone. And I say that without exageration. They would be no problem as far as the sunfish hurting them. The only problem I can see is temp. I do not know the long term health of a pleco in room temp water. I think it would be OK but not sure. They have them in lower Florida and I can only assume the water would be like room temp water down there but I just do not know. Hope this helps a little anyway.

I had an evil longear that would argue with you on that. He tore up one of my bristlnose plecos pretty bad one time. For the most part any sunfish will get along fine with 'em though. Longears are my personal favorite so far. Good luck and post some pics for us when you get some new fish.

My tank ph is about 8.4, the tap water ph is 7.0.

What is in your tank that is causing the pH to rise substantially above that of the tap water? That is the question I would be asking myself. Your tank water should be about the same pH as your tap water, unless you have something in there altering the water chemistry. You may need to figure out what this is and remove it.

[size=2]Thank you for all the great information. I would like to ask another question. My tank
ph is about 8.4, the tap water ph is 7.0. What would I need to do to make this safe for the sunfish? Do I need to have buckets of water sitting around for days to lower the pH? peaple that have large 200 gallon or more tanks would be there all day putting that water back in the tank with buckets. Is there something I can add to the water to lower it? or does this not effect sunfish?

Don't do anything, most sunfish are able to adjust with no problems. As long as it's stable it should be alright. Don't mess around with it, that often does more harm then good.

I am kinda confused about this pH thing. I have a siphoning tube I hook to a hose and it goes right outside, (works great) I also put water back in the tank with the hose connected to my sink. It sounds like putting water straight in that way could harm my fish. I think that might be why my Oscar died. But the pleco is doing great. Maybe that is not a issue with the pleco.

This is what a lot of people, including myself do. As long as you add declor BEFORE adding the water, and try to match the temp as close as possable you should be alright.

I hope I am not asking to many questions, I just need to get this right this time. It was very hard to loose my Oscar after 2 years and I want to make sure I am ready to do this and do it right.

Nothing wrong with asking questions, it's one of the reasons this forum is here.