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Green Sunfish in PetCo

Started by Guest_Speckled93_* , Jan 07 2014 02:52 PM

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22 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Speckled93_*

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Posted 07 January 2014 - 02:52 PM

Hey guys!

So I was browsing the fish selection at my local PetCo store and I stumbled across what appeared to be Green Sunfish. They were labled as juvenile Jack Dempsies, but I know South American cichlids well enough to know that they were not. Anyways, I bought all 6 of the little fellas (about 1.5" long) for dirt cheap and took them home. I've never kept Green Sunfish before, but I do currently have a Bluegill, a Pumpkinseed and a Largemouth Bass. If anybody has any advice for me on keeping these guys, I'd really like to know.

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#2 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 07 January 2014 - 03:06 PM

I've seen greenies in shops several times; sometimes in feeder tanks (tiny ones) and sometimes mixed with cichlids. Care is just like your other Lepomis. They are very friendly and responsive to people (i.e. greedy beggars) and all around good aquarium fish. Getting the whole group was a good idea to diffuse their aggression. Just 2 or 3 would probably lead to trouble.

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#3 Guest_Speckled93_*

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Posted 07 January 2014 - 03:16 PM

All of my fish are greedy beggars, so I guess They'll fit right in (I swear, my Largemouth Bass acts like a begging puppy dog!). They're in a tank by themselves for now, but when they get big enough I would like to move them into the tank that has the rest of my natives in it.

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#4 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 07 January 2014 - 03:16 PM

Congratulations (I guess)... I am just looking at the mouths on those mean greens... and thinking the primary advice I would have is figure out how to feed those! I'm used to a tank full of shiners... and a tank full of mean green looks like a challenge... but like gerald said, they will be very responsive to you and likely a lot of fun.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#5 Guest_dmarkley_*

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Posted 07 January 2014 - 03:51 PM

I've got a Greenie who is over 3 years old now. He's the meanest, most aggressive fish I've ever seen. When I open the tank to feed him, he splashes water out just to show he's ready to eat. He'll eat anything apparently but I usually give him chiclid pellets. He'll go crazy over fatheads. I tried introducing a 4 inch largemouth bass when he was only 3". He killed the bass in a day. He's now about 6 inches long and is definitely the king.

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#6 Guest_Speckled93_*

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Posted 07 January 2014 - 03:56 PM

Yikes! Hopefully the number of them will keep their aggression down, like Gerald said.

Michael: Feeding them at this size shouldn't be a problem. My Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, and Pumpkinseed eat me out of house and home (to the tune of 4 cans of worms a month, a medium size package of cichlid pellets, and about 8 dozen feeder guppies!). Compared to that, feeding these little tykes should be a breeze!

They're already flake food trained and they seem pretty lively and comfortable in the tank they are in.

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#7 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 07 January 2014 - 05:14 PM

eat me out of house and home (to the tune of 4 cans of worms a month, a medium size package of cichlid pellets, and about 8 dozen feeder guppies!). Compared to that, feeding these little tykes should be a breeze!

That's all I meant anyway... that they will be hungry hungry hippos... and they wont be satisfied with flake for very long... look at those jaws... they want those big floating cichlid pellets... or worms... or crickets... or cicadas... or...???!

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#8 Guest_Speckled93_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 12:22 AM

One last note/question. They have already shown some interest in the flake food I feed my S. American cichlids, but I am curious as to what else I could possibly feed them. I have never kept any Lepomis species as small as these guys. I know when they get bigger they will eat worms and crickets, but as of right now, their mouths are smaller than a pencil eraser. I was thinking black worms or brine shrimp. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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#9 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 01:37 AM

Hikari pellets.

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#10 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 08 January 2014 - 08:07 AM

Jarad, did you happen to mention anything to anyone in the store when you saw/purchased the fish? (In the sense that they had some false advertising---calling the Green sunnies a cichlid?) Not that most of us go to the big chains for their diverse selection of fish, but they should still be honest about things like that.

I'm not trying to be over critical. It was likely an oversight. But as you said, a Jack Dempsy, Convict, Firemouth, Green Terror, etc. is common enough not to be confused with a native sunfish. Either way, it was a good purchase.

Nick L.

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#11 Guest_Speckled93_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 11:21 AM

Yes, I informed them that they were not Jack Dempsies or any other type of cichlid, and that they were Green Sunfish. They told me that they came in with their shipment of feeders and that they were unsure as to what they actually were. They assumed Jack Dempsey because they looked through a cichlid book and that was the closest thing that they could find. I did not purchase them at Jack Dempsey prices either. I got them for $1.49 a piece.

Edited by Speckled93, 08 January 2014 - 11:23 AM.

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#12 Guest_AMcCaleb_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 02:17 PM

I've had green sunfish and longears at that size. I couldn't fill them up with just the flakes. I got them on wardleys medium sized cichlid pellets and hikari medium cichlid gold pellets. Even if it is a little big for their mouth they have no trouble nibbling it down to size. It won't take them long to be able to gulp any pellet whole though.

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#13 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 03:55 PM

Greenies do really really well in feeder fish ponds! Kudos to the shop staff for at least trying to ID them. Jack Dempsey or Green Terror would probably be my best guess too if the only available sources were tropical fish books.

Flies, cockroaches, spiders, moths, grasshoppers, crickets will be appreciated. No beetles, true bugs, or fuzzy caterpillars. Red wiggler or red worms (rubellus) are quite small and easy to culture.

They told me that they came in with their shipment of feeders and that they were unsure as to what they actually were. They assumed Jack Dempsey because they looked through a cichlid book and that was the closest thing that they could find.

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#14 Guest_Speckled93_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 04:20 PM

Thanks to everyone for the advice! I had some Hikari floating pellets that I feed my cichlids and they LOVE them! I didn't even consider using them because I thought their mouths would be too small to eat them, but they inhaled them like it was nothing. So thank you guys for that suggestion. Also, I work at a tackle shop here in Virginia Beach and can get red worms and crickets through work for dirt cheap. When they get a little bigger, I'm sure they will enjoy those.

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#15 Guest_Heather_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 04:27 PM

Very cool... and at a nice price too. Keep us updated as they grow :biggrin:

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#16 Guest_tomterp_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 05:42 PM

Thanks to everyone for the advice! I had some Hikari floating pellets that I feed my cichlids and they LOVE them! I didn't even consider using them because I thought their mouths would be too small to eat them, but they inhaled them like it was nothing. So thank you guys for that suggestion. Also, I work at a tackle shop here in Virginia Beach and can get red worms and crickets through work for dirt cheap. When they get a little bigger, I'm sure they will enjoy those.

Speckled, back in the day I used to work at a tackle shop and we'd get the most gorgeous fundulus in for bait, labeled "bull minnows". Very dark, almost black with irridescent blue spots, said to have been trapped in southern NJ. Do you sell minnows, and if so, do you get anything cool?

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#17 Guest_Speckled93_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 06:39 PM

Speckled, back in the day I used to work at a tackle shop and we'd get the most gorgeous fundulus in for bait, labeled "bull minnows". Very dark, almost black with irridescent blue spots, said to have been trapped in southern NJ. Do you sell minnows, and if so, do you get anything cool?

Yes we do sell minnows. We have a steady supply of Mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) almost all year round. Ocasionally a few Sheepshead Minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus) manage to slip in the tanks with the Mummichogs as well. I have had ZERO success keeping them in freshwater, no matter how slowly I acclimate them. We also occasionally get various crawfish and tadpoles in our shiner tanks. Sadly, nothing majorly cool.

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#18 Guest_tomterp_*

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Posted 08 January 2014 - 08:36 PM

Yes we do sell minnows. We have a steady supply of Mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) almost all year round. Ocasionally a few Sheepshead Minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus) manage to slip in the tanks with the Mummichogs as well. I have had ZERO success keeping them in freshwater, no matter how slowly I acclimate them. We also occasionally get various crawfish and tadpoles in our shiner tanks. Sadly, nothing majorly cool.

I'm pretty sure ours were heteroclitus as well, but I haven't seen a picture that does them justice. And I cringe when I think of the terrible conditions we kept them in, a large minnow tank with aeration but no filtration, and no water changes ever to my knowledge. The shiners were as nondescript as anything, wonder what they were.

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#19 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 02:20 AM

Petco in Keene had some sunnies in their feeder tank this weekend. Second time I ever seen sunnies for sale in a store. I was so tempted to buy them as they are cute when they are little. But with two active tanks (minnows and redbreast sunny) I had no good choices for where to put them.