Bullheads, bluegills, and goldfish together?

Hi I'm Emily, from MPLS, MN and I just found this forum and thought I'd give it a shot. Let me give some history first on my situation, the mistakes I've made and how I'm trying to solve them. Then to make a long story short, I'm wondering if bluegills with be compatible with either 1) a small bullhead or 2) comet goldfish (but not both, because bullheads and goldfish are not compatible).

About 4 years ago I got a 55 gal. aquarium to keep at a boyfriend's house for my goldfish (who have since died) and I foolishly added 2 bluegills and 2 bullheads without doing my research first. For a little while I also had a 39 gal tank at the same house, and when one of the bullheads got too big, he tried to eat a goldfish and was put into confinement in a 15 gal long tank (which is too small if he ever gets bigger). But now that it's too late, I realize that the bullheads were the reason for several mysterious goldfish deaths over the years, including a beloved black moor which should have NEVER been put into a tank with those other fish and two comets that I raised from babies.

When the boyfriend moved in with me for a short time before splitting, I had to move that 55 gal tank to my parents' house for 2 years, and I just now within the last month reaquired it after I moved to a new apt. that would accomodate it.

The tank had been divided for a while because my mom reported one of the bluegills acting aggressive and chasing the other fish, and the comet had fins being nipped. One side of the tank had the larger bluegill and a bullhead, and the other side had a smaller bluegill and a comet goldfish. Just last week or so I noticed the bluegills interacting with each other through the divider and I decided to try pulling the divider to see if they would get along, thinking because the tank is with me know, I can watch it more closely and put the divider back if I need to.

TERRIBLE IDEA!!!!! In two days the comet was attacked. She just died dispite all my attempts to save her. I feel soooo terrible, because I had that fish for almost 5 years. I KNEW bullheads were aggressive from my previous experience, but I had NO IDEA that a bullhead that size would kill a comet of equal size (the other bullhead was much larger). Because the bluegill that was living with the bullhead was never attacked, I honestly had no idea and now I KNOW that is how the other comet in that tank died. Because this whole time I thought the bluegill was the culprit but I should have known better, and consequently I lost my favorite fish.

Now I only have 1 bullhead and 2 bluegills in that tank. I would like to get some more goldfish but I don't want anyone getting killed again. So this is my question:
1. If I get goldfish, I will have to move the bullhead. It's only 5", but eventually it will grow and I don't have room for anymore large tanks.
2. If I figure out something to do with the bullhead, will the bluegills eventually cause trouble for the goldfish?
3. If I don't get anymore goldfish, and leave the bullhead where it is, will it eventually start attacking the bluegills also?
4. Is there another fish, maybe perch or other sunfish, that is compatible with bluegills?
5. Now that I have these bullheads, what the heck do I do? (The one big nasty one is still living in the 15 gal tank, and seems to be healthy and doing well, but I know that's really small--like I said I got these 4 years ago, and I know that I was stupid for not doing my research.)

Thanks a lot!
Emily

There are several fish compatible with bluegills and bullheads, but for a 55 gallon tank you're going to end up with just a bullhead tank more than likely. The bluegill will probably be able to hold their own, but that's not guaranteed. If you want more goldfish, you should probably get rid of the bullheads by either giving them to a friend or releasing them in a private pond that has no connections too any natural rivers or lakes in order to prevent possibly spreading disease.

This just involves too much thinking. My approach is this: Throw a bunch of fish in the tank. They will sort themselves out one way or another, just as you have described.

Well I am not sure if this helps but I have kept quite a few Bluegills over the yrs and in my experience they dont mate well with other fish...They are actually quite aggressive...I tried to have them with largemouth bass, crappie and perch....I even had more fish than I wanted in there in hopes of the bluegill becoming less territorial but it didnt help...they created their own area ha ha...In every case they would chase other fish and nips the fins off...there were more than one occasion where I would come home form work to find a completely finless and tailless fish at the bottom of the aquarium....And seeing i couldnt keep a pleco in there for waste removal, I threw in 3 - 5" freshwater lobsters in there thinking they would be safe...Nope, with in 3 weeks they were all reduced to an empty shell...I not sure if this info helps you but like i said, I really didnt have any luck keeping Bluegills as a community fish....On the other hand, the best for me was Crappie....Hope this helps....Peace

Perch can't live with bluegills either? What about another sunfish?

I decided to get a new 30 gal long tank for the nasty little bullhead. It's probably overdoing it a little, and I can't really afford it but I guess that's what credit cards are for. It will give him room to grow forever so I won't need to keep switching tanks. I have a 20 gal that has worked fine for no more than 2 goldfish in the past. That would be too small for the bluegills though, wouldn't it? It seems like bluegills need more space than goldfish, in my experience.

That is not what credit cards are for. If you're getting a tank at the pet store, you can probably get a 55 with heater/filter/light on Craigslist for less than the 30 will cost you at retail. Take a look at least. The fish will be happier with the bigger tank, and so will you.

That is not what credit cards are for. If you're getting a tank at the pet store, you can probably get a 55 with heater/filter/light on Craigslist for less than the 30 will cost you at retail. Take a look at least. The fish will be happier with the bigger tank, and so will you.

lol! I know, craigslist has a ton of stuff!

There was a guy this weekend in my town offering a 55 with everything but stand for $65. Given the situation your fish are in maybe you can't afford to wait too long to find the best deal, but there are a TON of fish tanks that people had no business buying going up on that website every day. Make lowball offers on all of them and you'll get some bites. Heck, take one that comes with fish and just throw the bullhead straight in.

There was a guy this weekend in my town offering a 55 with everything but stand for $65. Given the situation your fish are in maybe you can't afford to wait too long to find the best deal, but there are a TON of fish tanks that people had no business buying going up on that website every day. Make lowball offers on all of them and you'll get some bites. Heck, take one that comes with fish and just throw the bullhead straight in.

I agree w/ you. But my other problem is that I already have a 55 gallon tank and I have 4 more tanks already between 10-20 gallons. Therefore, I really can't fit anymore 55's! That's why I decided on the 30 longs. But those oddball sizes are really difficult to find on craigslist. I'm on that site all the time and usually find 55's, 10, or 20s. I did find 20 long on craigslist but my larger of the two bullheads is already probably around 6 or 7 inches and he's going to outgrow a 20 long for sure. Also, if I need to move again, those are a real pain to move. At least a 30 long fits easily in my car.
Emily

I think you see the 55s all the time because they're garbage. You can't fit it into any space where you can't fit a 75, so why settle for the small one? 10s and 20s are just sort of standard starter sizes and become available every time someone fails at keeping guppies and goldfish.

You're going to NEED a 55 for that bullhead. A 30 gallon is too small for a 13"+ fish.

I've adopted some goldfish and they're doing very good with my Yellow Bullhead. I think Yellow Bullheads are more aggressive than brown or black bullheads (I've never kept either specie tho). The goldfish that I've adopted are quite a bit bigger than the bullhead.

My Yellow Bullhead was aggressive for a few months, but now he isn't. The Yellow Bullhead is 8 inches or so, and the goldfish are about the same length. The goldfish are really fat.

I've never tried to keep Bluegills.

ON the bullheads. Big eaters and sloppy poopers. Large mouths that can fish small goldfish in. I think that your bullhead would fit in a 50/55 or bigger tank. A forty breeder is a nice size and usually less expensive than the afformentioned sizes. I would only consider keeping a snail bullhead in captivity. But I suppose if you have a large enough tank the others could work.

Gold fish?? I do not know why one would want to keep them with natives but if so I do not think in my opinion that they would make good tankmates for either the bluegill nor the bullheads. But I think blue gill and bull heads would do fine together in a large enough tank.

What you do with your own finances is none of my business so I will not comment on that. But if you do use what you have at least get a large enough tank to accomodate what you want to keep comfortably as far as size goes.

Again every time I see a snail bullhead I think I would love to keep one. I "think" but I am not sure that they are the smallest except for the madtoms. And their markings are pretty besides.

And on the blue gills I mean they are OK but if it were me I would choose a sunfish that was prettier. Long ear, orange spotted, northern long ear, red spotted, warmouth, redbreast. etc etc. My first pick would be the sunfish that zimmermans captive raised fish sells. I am not to sure of the name but it is the long ear I think from missouri but not sure. Anyway it has lot of orange and red. Very very beautiful fish that would wow anyone.

Well that is my little bit. Hope you do well.

Cajun

Edited by nativecajun, 21 March 2009 - 08:18 AM.