46 replies to this topic

[Matt DeLaVega]

I really liked keeping crappie. They are slow delicate feeders, so they need space and time to compete for pellets once you get them trained.

[Leo1234]

This is my redear sunfish

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This is my dominate bluegill. Just something I wanted to post for a long time.

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I really need to clean that aquarium soon... This is before the water change and changing filter. I still need to get the sponge filters.

[Matt DeLaVega]

You meant longear not redear. Want me to change that?

[Leo1234]

I guess. I got it from brian zimmerman as a redear sunfish. I always thought it was a longear, but was never 100% sure. It is the survivor of the first 6 redear sunfish I had. What type of longear do you think it is? I assume it is a female since it has a short ear.

[Dustin]

It looks quite a bit like a dollar rather than a longear even.

[Leo1234]

I could see how it is a dollar sunfish, but it seems way too nice to be one   it only chases the smaller redear sunfish occasionally. It is also the only fish to ever ram the green sunfish I had.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Well, better let Brian answer that. No reason for me to correct it for you now as it was not just a spelling error.

[smbass]

I think it is what I would call a Gulf Coast Longear (stock from the Blackwater River basin in FL). I had those in with my redears last year so I probably just got one of the little tiny guys wrong when I shipped them. I do my best to sort out all the tiny young sunfish if I have more than one sunfish species in a particular pond but as you can imagine that can be quite difficult sorting through a couple hundred very tiny sunfish. That particular form of longear look a lot like a giant dollar sunfish. They actually get rather large even for longears.

 

Most of the time I just put one species per pond but sometimes I do mix redears with a second species and as long as they are not bluegill or greens you can get away with that and not run much risk of producing hybrids.

[Leo1234]

well it is one of my favorite fish in my tank either way. Is it a female of a male? How large will it get? 

[Leo1234]

So.. I might switch my 150 into a darter and minnow aquarium. The reason is it feels like my stock will crash soon. I have lost 3 fish in the past 2 weeks and my large lake chubsucker looks like he will be on that list soon. He is covered in larger white dots (too large to be ich) and has a fuzzy growth on the area he got hurt in. I also bought a lima shovelnose catfish at one point and his barbels fell off and then he died... And 2 sunfish were fine one day and dead the next...  I'm trying to figure out what to do with the remaining fish. 


Update:
I have people taking my smaller sunfish and my catfish. All that will be left are my 3 bluegill, 2 crappie, 1 warmouth.

[Leo1234]

Would this work?

Suckers: 2 white suckers, 2 creek chubsuckers

Darters: 4+ Rainbow, 4+ Greenside, 5 Logperch, 6 Redline (If I can ever get some), 4 Blackbanded, 6 Banded, 3 fantail. Reccomend any other species?

Minnows: 4+ stonerollers, 12+ southern redbelly dace, 4+ redside dace, 4+ scarlet shiner, (?) 6 golden shiner, Any recommendations? 

[Matt DeLaVega]

Not too bad. Sounds like a fun tank. I would drop the white suckers if it were me. They just don't interest me. See if you can get a hold of suckermouth minnows. Easy to keep and fill the sucker and minnow niche. Brian Z. might custom collect a couple for you. I have kept the rest except creek chubsucker, and had no problems with any except redside dace. That was due to collecting stress more than anything else.

[Evan P]

Get some Nocomis in there! If you want to try Horneyhead Chubs, shoot me a pm, I'd be happy to send a couple your way.

[Leo1234]

Do you know of anyone who has redline darters that can send me some? What should I use for caves? I'm probably going to get rid of my plants and change it into a river tank. The 150 has black plant gravel substrate. Would that look weird? I don't think I can afford to change the substrate though. 

[Evan P]

I recommend buying play sand and gravel from a business like Home Depot or something similar. You could get plenty of each for 15 dollars or less.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Dump washed sand into the tank.Probably look fine and fill the gaps, and no more cleaning gravel.

[Leo1234]

would Polished river stones be harmful? This is what I'm looking at http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rain-Forest-Rain-Forest-20-lb-Mixed-Polished-Grade-A-Pebbles-0-5-in-to-1-5-in-RFMXPS/206151015 

 

[Evan P]

No, I imagine they would be fine. With all things, before you put them in your tank, give them a quick rinse, but other than that, it should be fine.

[Leo1234]

I think there is a question on here already about this, qbut are there any species of sunfish that can be in the 150 gallon river aquarium with darters? I would prefer lepomis, but any group is fine. I also started the process by removing some of the plants.

[Evan P]

Any of the Enneacanthus, plus some smaller Lepomis. Bantam, Orangespotted, and Northern Longear would all probably work pretty well.