Tank Size for sunfish

At the lake near my house I have caught blue gill, green sunfish, longear, and warmouths. There is another lake about 60 miles North wear I have caught redbreasted sunfish. Someday, I would really like to set up a tank where I could keep a male and female of all of these (accept maybe the bluegill.) What size tank would I need to successfully keep all of these in the same tank?

Also, will male sunfish be agressive toward females of the same species or just other males?

Thanks, Don

So You are talking 8-10 adult sunfish, all of which are relatively large species of Lepomis, I would say 100 gallons would probably suffice. A common size tank close to this is a 125 gallon.

So You are talking 8-10 adult sunfish, all of which are relatively large species of Lepomis, I would say 100 gallons would probably suffice. A common size tank close to this is a 125 gallon.

Really? I thought I would need much larger. I was saving for a 180 Gal but wondered if it would be too small. I did have 4 (3 warmouths a longear) in a 46 Gallon but they were not full grown yet.

Thanks,

Don

More space wouldn't hurt but I think they would do ok in a 125. I typically keep 6-8 adults in a 55 when dealing with smaller species such as dollars, bantams, or redspotted.

I don't think a 125 is big enough. Before mine got dropped a few moves back, I had a 135g. It looks like a big tank until you put larger territorial fish in there. Then it doesn't seem so big after all.

I don't think this Noah's Arc of big sunfishes is going to work with anything short of an above ground pool.

Better to have a number of smaller tanks, one species represented in each.

A lot of the aggression problems can be dealt with by having a lot of hiding places, I mean to the point of not being able to see the fish unless they want to be seen. Another big help is if you have more females than males, or if your really only interested in color, have all males. These are all things that can be done to allow you to keep more sunfish in a smaller tank.

I would get 3-4 55 gallon tanks. You said a male and a female of each, so I'm assuming that you are planning on breeding them. If that's the case, you would definately need separate tanks for each species. If not, I do not see why you couldn't keep a pair of greens, warmouth, and longears in a 125g, as long as there were plenty of hiding places, as Smbass stated above, and you had a lot of territorial boundaries(driftwood, large rocks, etc.). Just my 2 cents.

I would get 3-4 55 gallon tanks. You said a male and a female of each, so I'm assuming that you are planning on breeding them. If that's the case, you would definately need separate tanks for each species. If not, I do not see why you couldn't keep a pair of greens, warmouth, and longears in a 125g, as long as there were plenty of hiding places, as Smbass stated above, and you had a lot of territorial boundaries(driftwood, large rocks, etc.). Just my 2 cents.

I am not planning on breeding and if I did decide to, I would just move the breeding pair back to my 46 gal. But for now my idea is to use the 46 gal for plants & smaller stuff, maybe ghost shrimp or crawfish, minnows etc.

I would get 3-4 55 gallon tanks. You said a male and a female of each, so I'm assuming that you are planning on breeding them. If that's the case, you would definately need separate tanks for each species. If not, I do not see why you couldn't keep a pair of greens, warmouth, and longears in a 125g, as long as there were plenty of hiding places, as Smbass stated above, and you had a lot of territorial boundaries(driftwood, large rocks, etc.). Just my 2 cents.

I would do the same, except I would go ahead and make them 125 gallons, and maybe 8 instead of just 3-4.