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Dollars or Orangespots?


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#1 Guest_chad55_*

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Posted 27 November 2006 - 11:14 PM

Well which one is better? I am going to get a pair... I am leaning towards orangespots right now though. Will be going in a ten until spring ( :cry: ) then the 29 for an indeffinent amount of time then possible 55+ depending on what I decide to do in time. Don't worry about them being in a ten though they are going to be small and I am good with w/c so I am sure they will be fine. I can always make an emergecy switch to the feeder tank :twisted: !

Chad

#2 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 27 November 2006 - 11:55 PM

well orangespots are definately more dossile. Dollars can be very territorial, especially if you get a decent sized male and get slightly larger than the orangespots. other things to consider would be weather or not you plan to keep anything else with them. Orangespots would be easier to keep other fish with since they do seem to be less agressive and slightly smaller. Are you planning to buy some or catch some?

#3 Guest_chad55_*

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Posted 28 November 2006 - 06:47 AM

Well I am buying them. Also I am going to keep them by themselves or with just maybe a few cheap additions like baitstore shiners and stuff like that. Nothing that I actually plan on keeping for the long hall. So agression doesnt really matter to me. Can you sex them both pretty easily or no? Thanks guys.

Chad

#4 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 28 November 2006 - 12:51 PM

orangespots are simpler to sex and can be done at a smaller size but both can be sexed when they reach maturity without much trouble. Orangespots are just simple in that they will have orange or redish spots if the are males and females lack much color to the spots other than brown or a very slight orange tinge. Dollars are much like longears and males will be generally more colorful and have a longer opercle flap and are much more aggressive. Although a female dollar does show some color so there is not as distinct of a difference in them as in the orangespots.

#5 Guest_chad55_*

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Posted 28 November 2006 - 07:26 PM

Ok I just ordered a pair of orangespots...Any tips if I want to try and breed them or anything?

Chad

#6 Guest_choupique_*

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Posted 29 November 2006 - 12:00 AM

Both are awesome. Orangespots, your choice already made, is probably the best to start out with. They can be scrappy though.

I have noticed with dollars versus longears. Female dollars never get much of an ear flap, compared to males, while longear females ( centrals, not northerns) often can look very close to the males.

To prepare for the dollars, which you will want to get, start playing with the orange spots and tank mates. In most cases I have found lots of cover in the form of wood and weeds ( you can use rocks, I don't) will be a good base to stop aggression. Gnarly roots for wood, filling atleast a quarter of the tank space. Lots of weeds too, floating, submerged. If you don't have a green thumb, or don't want to spend the money on electricity to grow plants, silk plants work great.

You want to have enough cover that every fish in the tank can disappear in the blink of an eye. Normally after that to curb aggression I do the 'african cichlid' method of making sure there are too many bodies around to set up a territory and narrow down the bullying to one fish.

A tank with tons of cover and lots of sunfish ( and other fish too if you like) is really awesome. Best channel on the non tv.

#7 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 29 November 2006 - 12:24 AM

I definately second the idea of lots of cover and many fish to curb any aggressive behavior. I do this in my tanks too and it definately works well with sunfish.

#8 Guest_chad55_*

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Posted 29 November 2006 - 06:53 AM

Well at first they will be in a ten gallon so I don't want to add any more bioload to the tank. Maybe I will add a couple shiners but no more sunfish. I do have lots of cover on my tanks so I am good there. Anything special about breeding? I have kept sunnies before just not bred them and never kept orangespots.

Chad

#9 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 29 November 2006 - 11:31 AM

A wintering over period helps but is not necessary. It seems to me you just have to get the females nice and plump on some high quality foods for a consistent time period (a month or so) and then bring the temperature up to the high 70's. This seems to work with any Lepomis species. I beleive choupique has a little more experience breeding them in tanks I typically breed mine in outdoor ponds durring the summer but have bred a couple species in a tank. I fatten mine up all winter at room temperature (high 60's low 70's) and then put them outside in the spring once my ponds are at a similar temperature and just wait for them to warm up naturally. My N. Longears seem to spawn as often as weekly if the temp in my apartment gets up into the mid 70's I just have not bothered to try to raise the fry in a tank usually because I don't have time or space to raise baby brine to feed them and it is much easyer outside when they can feed on natural zooplankton in my ponds.

#10 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 29 November 2006 - 01:12 PM

Smbass, what are you fattening them up on?

#11 Guest_chad55_*

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Posted 29 November 2006 - 03:00 PM

Thank you very much...maybe in the spring I will put them in a small pond outside. I know my bluegill and green sunfish are going to be breeding like crazy this year so hopefully my bass and bowfin will have plenty of feeders when they venture into the great out of doors! I am going to try and breed them indoors first though. I think it would be really cool. And I want to know the same thing nativeplanter asked. I will be giving them bloodworm and shrimp for sure. Possibly the ocassional earthworm and feeder. Of course I am going to try them out on pellets though. I really don't try very hard to get my fish onto pellets though because I like feeding them frozen stuff better.

Chad

#12 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 30 November 2006 - 11:01 AM

I have used chichlid pellets that have a lot of krill and fish meal in them in the past but they were very messy so I have since switched to freezed dried krill and mysis shrimp. I ocasionally give the larger ones some live crickets. This is for all my 10 species or strains of Lepomis and I also have 1 spotted bass and a flier. The pellets I used were called the live food alternative made by tetra. For the Ennecantheus sp. I currently and have always used frozen blood worms.

#13 Guest_bearskookums_*

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Posted 17 December 2006 - 07:45 AM

Hey Chad how are the sunfishes coming along?
I am trying to switch my tiny longear into a 29gal tank that has other fish in it now....theres 3 TinFoil Barbs and a Kissing gourami...and a crayfish...He's now in a tiny everything under one hood tank...and I wanna make that 5 gal a shrimp tank...
Does sunfish go well with Tinfoil barbs? they are about the same size...around 3-4 inches....I might wanna put another sunfish in it but afraid too many sunfish is gonna cause some big fights....
whats the max number of sunfish anyone has kept in a 29 gal tank? I have lots of cover...and rocks etc...

#14 Guest_chad55_*

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Posted 17 December 2006 - 10:09 PM

Hey Chad how are the sunfishes coming along?
I am trying to switch my tiny longear into a 29gal tank that has other fish in it now....theres 3 TinFoil Barbs and a Kissing gourami...and a crayfish...He's now in a tiny everything under one hood tank...and I wanna make that 5 gal a shrimp tank...
Does sunfish go well with Tinfoil barbs? they are about the same size...around 3-4 inches....I might wanna put another sunfish in it but afraid too many sunfish is gonna cause some big fights....
whats the max number of sunfish anyone has kept in a 29 gal tank? I have lots of cover...and rocks etc...

Haha well I had a few problems with getting the orangespots so I have dollars. I just got them a few days ago so not really much to update on. They ARE eating flakes and brine though. And I think sunfish would go fine with tinfoil barbs. You do know that tinfoils can get over 12" though right? And dollars get about 6" and I am going to keep all three in my 29 atleast until I get a new tank. Or maybe for life. It might be difficult to keep up on the water quality though.

Chad

#15 Guest_bearskookums_*

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Posted 17 December 2006 - 10:57 PM

Yeah...I think the tinfoils look better as they get bigger...but hopefully they wont get too big too fast...

#16 Guest_blaze88_*

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Posted 28 December 2006 - 10:13 PM

As far as breeding I can't say much about dollars but my orange spots have breading behavior and I don't even try. My male build a few nests, but they were all distroyed by my koi getting exited and swimming quickly and kicking up sand and gravle. I am pretty sure I saw a pair spawning once, or mabey I am mistaken.


Oh and I know this is a really stupid question but where did you order your fish?

#17 Guest_chad55_*

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Posted 29 December 2006 - 02:47 PM

From KSI aquatics here. And I would reccomend them to anybody looking for fish. Dustin is a really great guy!

Chad




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