Straw Man For My Bluegills

I have 3 bluegills around 2.5 inches each in a 22 gallon tank with live plants and driftwood. My largest gill gets harassed a lot by the two slightly smaller ones. He appears healthy (particularly at chow time) but cowed; he shows very little color (even his blue gill has disappeared).

To take some of the heat off him, I am debating adding two or three of rosy reds..... just to give my bullies another few targets. I think they're attractive enough and they're certainly cheap at the pet store. They look big enough to avoid predation... maybe.

Might this work? These feeder fish always look a bit sickly; is there a significant risk of disease? Would additional shelter be a better idea? Am I a worry wort?

From my experience of putting in targets, the bluegills will probably kill the rosies in a few hours.
What I have done is take all the fish out and completely change the tank decorations around. Then put the picked at fish in and leave it by itself until it is eating, then slowly introduce the other fish.

You could build a large, wooden badger...

Jut kidding - actually, discus will do the trick. Don't buy the cheap ones like brown discus, you will need some really nice ones, like pigeon blood or something. Put them in with the bluegills. You should see results in short order.

try adding more structure to the tank to break up line of sight. those bluegill know that the tank is not big enough. i would bet that they will kill of the larger BG then start in on each other

there can be only ONE!!!!

The re-arrange the tank trick never worked for me (with cichlids). Adding more "structure" will help. Perhaps a target fish that is more robust than rosy reds.

What may work is adding more bluegill! This spreads out the aggression, and I think they may feel more secure in a small school. Your tank size is pretty limiting, though.

I have 3 bluegills around 2.5 inches each in a 22 gallon tank with live plants and driftwood. My largest gill gets harassed a lot by the two slightly smaller ones. He appears healthy (particularly at chow time) but cowed; he shows very little color (even his blue gill has disappeared).

To take some of the heat off him, I am debating adding two or three of rosy reds..... just to give my bullies another few targets. I think they're attractive enough and they're certainly cheap at the pet store. They look big enough to avoid predation... maybe.

Might this work? These feeder fish always look a bit sickly; is there a significant risk of disease? Would additional shelter be a better idea? Am I a worry wort?

You need like a 55 gallon until they get 8" or so, then a 75g.

The re-arrange the tank trick never worked for me (with cichlids). Adding more "structure" will help. Perhaps a target fish that is more robust than rosy reds.

What may work is adding more bluegill! This spreads out the aggression, and I think they may feel more secure in a small school. Your tank size is pretty limiting, though.

I did not mention adding additional sunnies because of tank size, he will have difficulty keeping nitrate below 80 ppm with just the 3 fish alone, in that tank

try adding more structure to the tank to break up line of sight. those bluegill know that the tank is not big enough. i would bet that they will kill of the larger BG then start in on each other

there can be only ONE!!!!

Breaking up the line-of-sight seems to have worked (for the time being, at least). In fact, it temporarily rearranged the pecking order. I have yet to try the wooden badger; www.largewoodenbadger.com seems to be off-line.

The ammonia levels are pretty low with a fluval 205 and regular water changes. A larger tank is a future option, as the fish grow. Assuming they don't kill each other off. Right now, that doesn't seem likely to me based on their behavior (the weakest fish eats plenty and is able to stop the aggression by going submissive). But it might happen - I'm no sunfish expert. If they get to 8'', they're destined for my pond or for the frying pan.

Thanks for the feedback!
Ken