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New to sunfish


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#1 Smitty5783

Smitty5783
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  • Goldsboro NC

Posted 25 June 2016 - 10:46 PM

I have recently obtained a 55 gallon tank from a friend. I want to put some sunfish in it from a local creek. I have checked the laws and i am good to go. I am looking for someone to tell me what else I need to get in order to make this idea of mine work ie. Pumps, filters etc. I have read up a little bit about plants in the tank and i believe I'll put some in it as well. Any suggestions on plants too? Thanks all...

#2 loopsnj64

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Posted 25 June 2016 - 10:55 PM

Even if you get very little juveniles

those things will bully eachother senseless, I suggest only getting a healthy, breeding-color male because I have not a clue on keeping more than one (my largest tanks (I have two 30 gallon tanks, one of them houses a growing Pumpkinseed) wouldn't allow for more than 1 sunfish anyway)


"All good things must come to an end, but bad things think thats rather dull, so they stick around long after their natural end has come"

-From an art book I read


#3 Smitty5783

Smitty5783
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  • Goldsboro NC

Posted 25 June 2016 - 11:03 PM

So only keep one fish? Read as long as you have decent hiding spots and stuff to break up line of sight you should be fine. Any truth?

#4 centrarchid

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Posted 26 June 2016 - 05:33 AM

I recommend getting several small sunfish.  Keeping numbers high can help manage discord.  You can also manage discord by going the monosex route.

 

 

What species options do you have?  Some are much less aggressive than others.


Find ways for people not already interested in natives to value them.

#5 Cu455

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Posted 26 June 2016 - 06:43 AM

Is it just a tank or did it come with equipment?

Other then decorative items you will want mechanical and biological filtration. Some people use chemical filtration likeep charcoal but that's optional.

If you have no equipment you should get a HOB filter or 2. Aquaclears are popular. I have been using aqueons and like them. It is a waste of money to use the standard filter cartridges. Buy a sheet of felt from a art store and cut it to the right size of the filter. You can also use a sponge. Put that in for your mechanical and have the water flow through that first. Behind that use ceramic rings or crushed lava rock for bio filtration.

I use powerheads in all my tanks, once again you don't need it . A cheap sunsun will work fine.

Plants are very beneficial to a tank. It takes up waste from the water and gives you fish something to pick at. You can use t5s or LEDs. If you get something like elodia you won't need much light.

In short you need.

1) Decorations/Substrate
2) filter hang on back or a canster works.
3) Lights

I would also grab a handfull of sand or some rocks from a local pond to seed your tank with life. Bring a bucket with water and shake some plants off in it.

#6 Smitty5783

Smitty5783
  • NANFA Guest
  • Goldsboro NC

Posted 26 June 2016 - 07:58 AM

I've got the tank only. I'm building a stand for it next weekend and I'll get some water in it to let it start to cycle.

#7 Smitty5783

Smitty5783
  • NANFA Guest
  • Goldsboro NC

Posted 26 June 2016 - 08:00 AM

 
What species options do you have?  Some are much less aggressive than others.


I have green, pumpkins, redbreast, red ears, also have both white and black crappie available.

#8 Smitty5783

Smitty5783
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  • Goldsboro NC

Posted 26 June 2016 - 08:02 AM

I would also grab a handfull of sand or some rocks from a local pond to seed your tank with life. Bring a bucket with water and shake some plants off in it.


Do I need to do anything to the sand and rocks? Didn't know if I needed to boil the rocks or not.

Edited by Smitty5783, 26 June 2016 - 08:03 AM.


#9 gerald

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  • Wake Forest, North Carolina

Posted 26 June 2016 - 09:16 AM

You also have flier sunfish - they're usually less belligerent than the Lepomis sunfishes, but a little trickier to train onto pellet food.  They'll eat worms and fresh or frozen shrimp just fine.  It's always a gamble when keeping multiple sunfish.  Sometimes it works, sometimes not.  Best to statrt off with a group of young, so they grow up together.  Bluegill are a bit more social than other Lepomis, but once their spawning instinct hits, males of all species are pretty nasty.  A single male sunfish or a few females in a tank with a group of large minnows (white, golden, satinfin shiners, bluehead chub, creek chub) and small-med catfish (margined madtom, snail bullhead) might work.  I wouldn't bother boiling the sand and rocks, unless of course you plan to boil the fish too.  Native plant suggestions:  Elodea, Coontail (Hornwort), Vallisneria, Najas, Echinodorus ...


Gerald Pottern
-----------------------
Hangin' on the Neuse
"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages" - M.Sandel


#10 gerald

gerald
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  • Wake Forest, North Carolina

Posted 26 June 2016 - 09:26 AM

Also there's warmouth and mud sunfish around Goldsboro; both are good aquarium fish and manageable size.


Gerald Pottern
-----------------------
Hangin' on the Neuse
"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages" - M.Sandel


#11 Smitty5783

Smitty5783
  • NANFA Guest
  • Goldsboro NC

Posted 26 June 2016 - 10:23 AM

Also there's warmouth and mud sunfish around Goldsboro; both are good aquarium fish and manageable size.


Thanks for the info gerald. Where are you from? Reason I ask is I live in goldsboro. I have a nearby creek that I fish that is loaded with warmouth.

#12 gerald

gerald
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  • Wake Forest, North Carolina

Posted 26 June 2016 - 08:04 PM

Yes I know where you are ... location is listed under your screen name, if you join as a member.  I'm in Wake Forest.  Join up and see where everybody else is!  "itsnotme" (Brandon) is in Smithfield/Selma area.


Gerald Pottern
-----------------------
Hangin' on the Neuse
"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages" - M.Sandel


#13 Michael Wolfe

Michael Wolfe
  • Board of Directors
  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 26 June 2016 - 09:20 PM

Also there's warmouth and mud sunfish around Goldsboro; both are good aquarium fish and manageable size.

 

Sandwich approves


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

#14 Smitty5783

Smitty5783
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  • Goldsboro NC

Posted 28 June 2016 - 09:27 AM

what would you all recommend for a filter?



#15 Michael Wolfe

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  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 28 June 2016 - 11:33 AM

Sandwich has deep substrate and a huge sword plant and then just a sponge filter.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#16 Michael Wolfe

Michael Wolfe
  • Board of Directors
  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 28 June 2016 - 11:53 AM

http://forum.nanfa.o...ich#entry128852

 

This is a link to a thread about Sandwich and his tank...


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

#17 khudgins

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  • NANFA Member

Posted 18 July 2016 - 12:16 PM

Sunnies are big, belligerent fish. Some species are more belligerent than others - I can testify that little Dollar sunfish, pound-for-pound, are the meanest things I've ever kept in a tank. Centrarchid's comments about overstocking the tank (African cichlid-style) to disperse aggression didn't really help me much in my attempts to keep a bunch of those guys in a tank!

 

That being said, they're so much like cichlids most advice you get for keeping new world cichlids applies. In general, they like softer water, eat lots of food, and make a mess of things in the tank. You absolutely can (and probably should) have some plants in the tank to help with filtration, but use bigger, tougher plants. What kind of physical filtration depends on how much fish you've got in that tank. They live in slack water in the creeks, so don't blow water through the tank too hard, but they're messy fish so if you want a crystal clear tank, you'll need to strike a good balance between water turnover and fish comfort.

 

If you're keeping bigger sunnies, in my opinion you're better off just keeping one. If you've ever seen a tropical fishkeeper's oscar, you're not far off the mark from a warmouth or butch green sunfish in behavior or aggression.



#18 dnorris89

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  • Baton Rouge, LA

Posted 22 September 2016 - 04:30 PM

I have a small greenie and he's an Ahole to everyone in the tank. He killed the other two sunfish within a few weeks of me putting them in there. He frequently patrols in front of the bullhead's burrow to make sure he doesn't get any ideas about venturing out. The bullhead only comes out to forage at night when the greenie isn't active. I wouldn't put greenies in a tank with anything else that likes open water. The catfish survive because they hide.





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