is the yellow perch appropriate for my tank?

I already have a 40 long waiting for a stand to be built.(starting the stand on monday) The tank is 48"x13"x16(?)" It has a ugf and a biowheel that is meant for a 20 gallon. In a few weeks I might pick up a few small sponge filters. The sponge filters are not only for cleaning the tank but for feeding my feeders in the tank . The inhabitants of this tank will be: 3 green sunfish 2 rock bass30-50+ ghost shrimp feeders some small minnow feeders. It has a gravel substate and will have some driftwood and fake plants in the tank. The tank is obviously going to be heavily filtered and water changes every 1-2 weeks. The lights are fleuescent and will only be on while viewing the aquarium so the water will remain at room temprature.


The question is can I keep a yellow perch in the aquarium or not? The fish will be fed tropical fish food on top of the live feeders. I think getting food to the fish will be fine I just don't know if there is enough room for him to be there or if he will overload the biocapacity of the tank.

the tank is a bit to small if you plan on seting up another tank for those greens when they get bigger I would say on the short term it would do fine. but most larger fish would do better on pellets question though why only fake plants I mean its not like you can kill java moss or hornwort for that matter.
whats with all of the ghost shrimp I dont think you'd need that many shrimp. even if you use um for food.

I think the tank would be a little crowded with a yellow perch in there aswell. However, you may beable to pull it off! Just consider that yellow perch can grow up to 15" in length so a fully grow perch can't turn around in your tank!

IMHO not a good idea. Even without the addition of the Perch, your tank is way too over stocked. While it may "seem" like a larger tank.. the sunfish are going to be highly territorial towards others, and need a large space just for one or two. My dad once used my 65 gallon tank for sunfish and bass, everything turned out getting aggressive towards everything else- tank ended up crashing.

I think I'll shy away from the perch unless I get some really passive greens


Any other oppinions it's all welcome.


remember my tank will be feavilly filtered so the biocapacity of this tank might be larger then an average 40 gallon.

I will just add that I had a yellow perch in a 75G (48x18xwhatever), and I felt it was too small. It had nothing to do with filtration.

Alright, I don't think I'll get a perch. Albeit I might fall to temptation, but I'll keep the idea as a replacement in case of another fish dying.

I think I'll shy away from the perch unless I get some really passive greens
Any other oppinions it's all welcome.
remember my tank will be feavilly filtered so the biocapacity of this tank might be larger then an average 40 gallon.

Filtration won't matter when it comes to nitrates, the end result of converted ammonia and nitrite. In a tank as heavily stocked as yours you're going to have to do tons of water changes regardless of filtration.
A yellow perch IMO is not an option, they grow far to large. In a 40g I would probably attempt one or MAYBE two of the greens.

Thanks, I'll deff leave it out of the tank.



/end thread

yellow perch = awesome fish
You can do it so long as you are prepared to upsize your tank as the fish grows.

I w0on't be able to afford a new tank for a longggg time. I'll just see if a sunfish dies then I'll replace it with a perch. Otherwise I guess it won't have enough room as others have stated. With 5 fish, a bunch of stressed minnows, and a bunch of feeder shrimp the tank is overloaded already.