Sort of stupid...

Okay, I'm still pretty new to natives and I was wondering if these following fish could all get along and stay permanantly in a 55 gallon with top-notch filtration and live plants, such as hornwort, elodea, vallisneria and banana plant, as well as hiding spots in driftwood and rock formations. If I can't keep them all in this tank permanantly, I can take them out and put them in my outdoor predator pond (Which is 600 gallons and has nothing in it now save for two rosy reds and a male fathead who all spawned in a little black PVC pipe piece and produced like a billion fry who all got eaten by their parents or something ) Okay, here are the fish

1 green sunfish

1 pumpkinseed

1 yellow perch

1 brown bullhead

1 bluegill

Okay, the more I think about this, the more foolish I think it is. But, then again... If I can't keep all of them in the 55 gallon permanantly, how many can I keep in there, and yes, again, permanantly (My parents don't see the jusification of buying a new $100+ tank setup for even a $10 oscar, let alone a 'practically free' native fish ) Thanks.

Dear catfish_hunter,

With, as you said, the proper filtration and abundant plant growth, I don't see why those fish can't live together in a 55 indefinitely / semi-indefinitely.

If you really want to put them all in a 55 make sure you have plenty of hiding spaces for the less aggressive/dominant fish, especially the yellow perch.
A tank that size with all those fish in it is going to get dirty fast even with good filtration and tons of plants, so you will need to do lots of water changes.
Last thing is sometimes sunfish like to tear up plants so be ready for that.

arnoldi Posted Yesterday, 04:19 PM
If you really want to put them all in a 55 make sure you have plenty of hiding spaces for the less aggressive/dominant fish, especially the yellow perch.
A tank that size with all those fish in it is going to get dirty fast even with good filtration and tons of plants, so you will need to do lots of water changes.
Last thing is sometimes sunfish like to tear up plants so be ready for that.

Really? Wow, that means I'm not so crazy after all. In fact, I'm thinking of tossing out the green sunnie due to the horror stories I've been hearing about them on here and elsewhere, which sucks, 'cause I like their Jack Dempsey-esque attitude and their bass-like-ness (Big mouth, begging for food,etc.)

Okay, I'm still pretty new to natives and I was wondering if these following fish could all get along and stay permanantly in a 55 gallon with top-notch filtration and live plants, such as hornwort, elodea, vallisneria and banana plant, as well as hiding spots in driftwood and rock formations. If I can't keep them all in this tank permanantly, I can take them out and put them in my outdoor predator pond (Which is 600 gallons and has nothing in it now save for two rosy reds and a male fathead who all spawned in a little black PVC pipe piece and produced like a billion fry who all got eaten by their parents or something ) Okay, here are the fish

1 green sunfish

1 pumpkinseed

1 yellow perch

1 brown bullhead

1 bluegill

Okay, the more I think about this, the more foolish I think it is. But, then again... If I can't keep all of them in the 55 gallon permanantly, how many can I keep in there, and yes, again, permanantly (My parents don't see the jusification of buying a new $100+ tank setup for even a $10 oscar, let alone a 'practically free' native fish ) Thanks.

I would say drop the bluegill and bullhead, find another peaceful smaller sunfish, and a madtom or two ( I hear longears are nice). Your 55 probably has an identical footprint as my 40 with more height, and I don't think I'd try to stick a bullhead or adult bluegill in there.

just my $0.02