Hey yall! First off I just wanna say that I am new to the native scene but have experience with tropicals. I love this website and have already learned so much from it and look forward to learning more! That being said, I am in trouble here. I have a 75 gallon tank and wide eyes that have found a bunch of fish that I want! I was always a cichlid lover but these natives are just stunning so now I'm torn! I'm trying to see if I can keep natives with CA/SA cichlids and a bichir. So heres my tentative list:
1- Jack Dempsey
1- Green Terror
1- Bichir Delhezi
1- Pumpkinseed Sunfish
1- Longear Sunfish
Another problem that I have run into is the availability of sunfish in my area. I currently attend East Carolina University in North Carolina and will be moving here from Chesapeake, Virginia. So any places that I could get sunfish around either area would work. Thank yall so much for helping me out on this one in advance!

Aren't Jack Dempsy's highly aggressive? I don't think the sunfish would survive being in the tank with one. I made the mistake of putting a couple of Redbreast sunfish in with some African cihlids once. That's a mistake I'll never make again the poor things never had a chance.

Jacks are actually pretty shy comparatively to other large american cichlids. They can do some damage if you get a mean enough one but typically they're less aggressive if in tanks with other large fish where they know they're not king of the roost.

When you're mixing fish and you're not sure what's going to happen, it's a good idea to have a backup plan in mind. What are you going to do if one of the five fish you listed is being an aggressor or getting bullied? Will you have a separate tank ready and waiting to scoop it out into? Or will you have to watch as over the course of a day or two it gets beaten to death? Releasing fish into the wild is not an option. Killing the fish and disposing of it is a waste. Finding it a new home on aquabid.com or craigslist means you'll need a temporary holding tank. Think about your options first and make sure you know what to do in case the fish don't all get along. As long as you have a backup tank, I see no reason not to mix and match as you please.

I have a native fish (heterandria formosa) and a tropical fish (guppies) together and they seem to benefit from being together. H. formosa are just large enough and fast enough to discourage guppies from eating them (and therefore other small fry). Guppies are outgoing and in the open water all the time, encouraging the H. formosa to be less shy. They both benefit from being together, even though they aren't found together in the wild. Mixing native fish and exotic fish isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I had a spare tank ready and cycled in case they didn't mix well.

Edited by EricaWieser, 05 March 2013 - 06:52 PM.

I do have a separate 10 gallon tank that could be used to take a fish out for holding for a few days. I also have a plethora of LFS that are open to taking in all donations in case of things not working out. Im also planning on getting all of these fish as babies so that they will grow up together and be able to work out their territories as babies. I've heard of that helping mellow the aggression between species?