Small sun fish question.

Ok...I want some small sunfish for my community tank.
The tank itself is very much a mixed species tank. It's a 40 long, that's divided into two "parts" in that one side is quite literaly a solid mass of plants, wood, and java moss(about 20 gallons worth) with a deep silt bottom(due to 9 months of growth and death of an ever thickening plant bed!).
The other side is moderate current, rocks, and more scattered plants. Temp will be between 70 and 75(in summer).
Livestock is darters(many, they hang out in the rocks), mud minnows, assorted shiners and dace(NRB), flagfish, bluefin killie(s), and a western banded killie(may add a few more of them also).
Will be adding some dwarf crayfish at some point also.
I have an offer I will accept of bluespots this spring...but what about black banded? I REALLY like the look of them also. I'm not in the least worried about finiky eating...I've managed to figure out ways to get food to pretty much anything...but, I do worry about agression BY the sunfish toward other fish. Will this be an issue?
I am sure the sunfish will utilize the heavy plant bed(it looks like the tanks I've seen designed to breed dwarf sunfish..it's THAT thick in there).
I don't want to go any larger then these species due to predation issues...but IF there is another type I'm not thinking of...let me know!(such as..banded, or dollar...just don't know much about them).

Those are the smallest two and the blackbanded are the least aggressive and smallest of all. I would not worry at all about aggression with the other species you mentioned, both bluespotted and blackbandeds would be fine. I have no personal experience with bandeds, I hope to change this soon, but dollars would be a very bad idea unless you want only them after a while. I have found western dollar sunfish and some of the larger more colorful longear strains to be the most aggressive of all sunfish species. I have often wondered if it has anything to do with the bright colors since these are also the most strikingly colored of all the sunfish in my opinion.

I've had issues with small blackbandeds eating when kept with adults. They are picky eaters and not aggressive at all. Request the same size fish to avoid this. This past week I've had to move some in with some MRBD and after a few days they learned to come out and eat or not eat at all. Since they are adults I'm not worried about them starving like I would if they were younger.

Banded would work well in a set up like that. They are more aggressive feeders than the bluespots [no experience with blackbanded]. They'd have no problem elbowing their way through the crowd for their share at meal time.
I have never seen them show aggression with other species and with enough cover, even a few males of their own species could coexist without more than a passing nip here or there.
Size is perfect and they have small mouths and don't seem too prone toward eating fish.
Not much color to speak of but a fair trade for peaceful temperament and easy care.
BTW, bandeds are pretty easy to come by around here so if you don't have them local, drop me a line.

Banded would work well in a set up like that. They are more aggressive feeders than the bluespots [no experience with blackbanded]. They'd have no problem elbowing their way through the crowd for their share at meal time.
I have never seen them show aggression with other species and with enough cover, even a few males of their own species could coexist without more than a passing nip here or there.
Size is perfect and they have small mouths and don't seem too prone toward eating fish.
Not much color to speak of but a fair trade for peaceful temperament and easy care.
BTW, bandeds are pretty easy to come by around here so if you don't have them local, drop me a line.

Thanks for the offer Mike. I already have an offer of bluespotted...so am leaning in that direction(or perhaps a pair of both!). Would banded be compatible with bluespotted(not worried about the banded..more so, about the blue spotted!).
I LOVE the look of the banded, to be honest..they may not be as "colorfull" as the others, but I love the "leaf fish" look of them.

You cannot go wrong with bluespots or bandeds, but for ease of keeping the bandeds are the way to go. and you will not be dissapointed in the looks department.

Edited by choupique, 29 February 2008 - 03:14 AM.