Keeping darters and sunfish in same tank...

Just wondering if its safe to keep darters and small.. like 2-4inch pumpkinseed or bantam sun fishes together? I have a small pumpkinseed in with a few darters in a 90 gallon. The sunfish doesnt pay no attention to the darters, just wonted to know if there bad about trying to pick at them.

Mike

Mike,

Shouldn't be a problem. I often catch darters and small sunfish in the same habitats.

Brian

Yeah these fish all came from the same area, just wonted to be sure!

Mike

Keep in mind, just because they are in the same area, doesn't mean they will get along. In the wild, the darters have plenty of hiding places, and the predators have a larger area to patrol. If the large fish is in close quarters with the small fish, sooner or later it'll try for a snack. If a fish can fit in another fish's mouth, it will probably end up there.

I have a smaller longear (2.5") in with my darters, it's quite pretty and reasonably well behaved, if not a bit of a pig at feeding time. However, if it continues to grow, I may have to finally set up a large native tank after all. I keep thinking about that longnose gar I snagged last fall, if only I'd had a tank big enough to keep it.

I have found that a few dace and shiners fill up the empty spaces in a darter tank quite nicely, and they don't tend to grow very large.

Keep in mind, just because they are in the same area, doesn't mean they will get along. In the wild, the darters have plenty of hiding places, and the predators have a larger area to patrol. If the large fish is in close quarters with the small fish, sooner or later it'll try for a snack. If a fish can fit in another fish's mouth, it will probably end up there.

I have a smaller longear (2.5") in with my darters, it's quite pretty and reasonably well behaved, if not a bit of a pig at feeding time. However, if it continues to grow, I may have to finally set up a large native tank after all. I keep thinking about that longnose gar I snagged last fall, if only I'd had a tank big enough to keep it.

I have found that a few dace and shiners fill up the empty spaces in a darter tank quite nicely, and they don't tend to grow very large.

Yeah i thought of this, I made a couple riffle caves out of smooth creek stone, the darters try them out everynow and again, so i know they use them. I will continue to watch them closely. Soon as i get the 120 setup im gonna move the sunfish and anymore i aquire in there.

Mike

Depends on what type of darters too. You can probably get away with a big Logperch and a few of the larger darters without any problems with your pumpkinseed. I have many darters and two N. Longears in a 75 and a few of the smaller darters are definately within the size range to be eaten, but I have many hiding places. Unless the darters act sick or injured the sunfish normally leave them alone, along with the shiners.

Andy