4 replies to this topic

[csbingham75]

Hey everyone!

I'm brand new to this forum as a member but I've come here for info before…excellent info on here!

Anyway, I've been keeping/breeding/selling central & south american cichlids for years now as well as many malawi and tang. species but its time i set up a full on native tank for our beautiful (and unfortunately commonly underrated) native species.  I've picked one of my tanks that i want to convert to a native tank.  Its a standard 75 gallon currently with a pair of Salvini cichlids that i will be selling shortly.  I'm going to be ordering some fish online either from zimmermans or jonasaquarium as they both seem to come up pretty frequently online for native fish (any other suggestions let me know). Im looking to set up the tank with a few sunfish along with a decent size group of schooling fish.  From what i know of my research and fishing up here in Massachusetts, some of the lepomis genus just get too big such as bluegills…Unless you think otherwise because they're a great fish. I love good ole pumpkinseeds and the red breasted sunfish is a long time favorite of mine.  Haven't had any personal experience catching some of the beauties like long ears, dollars, ect. since I'm up in New England but id like to have my tank mimic species that are up here around me.  Any ideas? Also for the schooling species..something that won't get too big but also won't end up being lunch.. is that possible? Ive bred fathead minnows and had some pretty beefy males but I'm not sure they would last as the sunnies got larger.  I know I'm working with only a 4 foot tank so nothing too crazy.  Sorry for the long post guys but i'd really appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

Chris 

[keepnatives]

Redbreast can get as large as bluegills as can pumpkinseeds though the pumpkinseeds tend to stay smaller. But any sunfish will harass the smaller minnows.  You can have the bigger ones like creek chubs, fallfish even larger golden shiners.  Pot up some plants and use some driftwood and or rocks to give lots of hiding spots and line of sight barriers.

 

Don't miss our annual convention in Portsmouth NH this year June 9-12th not often this close.  

[Michael Wolfe]

Sandwich says warmouth. But Sandwich thinks all shiners are snacks.

[Drx]

I got some long ears, spotted dollar, and banned all from zimmerman's in my 75g along with a flag fish and some blackstripe topminnow. Had a couple fatheads aswell but i think one of the sunfish did them in they don't seem to bother the topminnows as they use places in the tank that other fish don't. So far i've seen very minimal aggression other then the fatheads. The long ear has to be my favorite big personality spotted is my least as all he does is hide in his cave. 

[HelenGreene]

i would recommend Warmouth.