55 Gal, Moving To 90 In Spring

i have a 55 gallon tank i wish to convert to a native tank, which i am planning to upgrade to a 90 gal in march. i already have a viable population of breeding mollies to act as feeders, as well as a few juvenile crayfish and some ramshorns and mts for detritus and algae control. what kind of sunfish or bass can i keep in this setup? i was thinking green or pumpkinseed sunnys and maybe a smallmouth if it would work, or could it support a bullhead? i am running a tetra 60 now, will be adding reverse flow ug and a magnum 350 shortly, also have sand substrate. i've noticed anacharis growing in nearby creeks, would this be a good plant to use as a backdrop?

Hi Camber,

A 55 is too small for a smallmouth or bullhead, and may even be limiting for a green due to its narrow dimensions. I try to keep fish in a tank that are at least 1.5 times greater than that species' maximum length in it smallest dimension, so a green or other large sunny (max. length about 12") would only go in a tank at least 18" tall and deep, and probably at least 36" long. The 90 should be fine for them, but I would wait until I had the bigger tank to stock it instead of planning to upgrade later. Obviously smallmouth and bullheads, which reach lengths well over a foot, would need a very large tank by this rule of thumb.

Alternatively, you could keep smaller sunfish such as longears, orangespots, dollars, bantams, etc, in the 55 along with stonecats or other madtoms in place of bullheads.

Edited by Newt, 05 October 2008 - 11:31 AM.