7 replies to this topic

[Betta132]

I've had my warmouth with some silver dollars for awhile now, to see if they might be a viable combination. I wanted something reasonably active that he wouldn't be able to swallow, and it worked just fine for awhile, but he apparently keeps seeing their shininess out of the corner of his eye and mistaking them for food. Normally that's fine, they shoot away unharmed, but lately his reflexes have developed enough that he can grab them. 

I now have two fewer silver dollars. Both had warmouth-sized bite marks on them, areas where scales had been scraped away, and the most recent one (just found it) looks like he bit it a couple of times. Clearly he can't fit them down his throat, but he's tried. I'll be getting rid of the remaining ones, clearly, but does anyone think this might work out with larger dollars? I doubt he'd try to eat one that was nearly his own size, and they seem like they'd be durable enough to stand up to a quick nip. The ones I have now are something like 2", he's about 4" and growing fast. Or will dollars just not work with this guy? 

[Michael Wolfe]

Sandwich says, everything is food.  Now or later everything gets eaten.

[Betta132]

Did he eat those madtoms that were with him at one point? 

Mine is with an angelfish as well, but I don't think he even recognizes it as being a fish, fortunately. He gets very, very confused when it's aggressive towards him, and he's never shown any aggression at all in return. He just ducks his head, tries to look submissive, and sideeyes it furiously until it stops. "...is that a leaf why is it attacking me I DO NOT UNDERSTAND" 

[Michael Wolfe]

No, you are right about the madtoms when he was smaller than they were.

And I don't think warmouth are all that "aggressive" they are just hungry. So if your angel is too big to fit in his mouth, he is likely intimidated by cichlids aggression.

[Betta132]

I think him biting the silver dollars is more of a reflexive action than an attack, but even so, I'm taking them out. 

At this point, the angel has given up on intimidating him. I think he doesn't recognize sunfish "I give please go away" as submissive gestures and thinks the warmouth isn't afraid of him. They were a bit of an experiment in compatibility, and it seems to be going well. Angel is fine in room temp and is calm enough to just quietly eat around the warmouth's wild lunges, and beyond the angel's initial attempts at taking charge, they haven't fought. And the contrast is pretty cool, the delicate-looking angel with this big tough sunfish. 

Any suggestions for a reasonably large, reasonably unaggressive fish that will be fine in room temperature? Maybe a catfish of some sort? I don't trust him with most madtoms, but a stonecat might work- are there any I could catch in Central Texas? Or- what are crappies like in aquariums? 

[Michael Wolfe]

I've never had a crappie, but I hear that they do not change over to prepared foods hardly at all they pretty much just only hide out under cover (just like in the wild if you have ever fished for them).  They pretty much only eat minnows.

[Betta132]

Definitely not, then. And most other sunfish are either a bit too aggressive or a bit too large, though it looks like a dollar sunfish might be an option if I can find one. 

[gzeiger]

The conventional wisdom is that two sunfish in a confined space generally does not work. One will kill the other in a territory dispute. This has been my experience as well.