Keeping bluegills some questions.

I would cut the perch out. And with bluegill you may or may not have an agression problem. They get pretty mean. I would try 5 sunfish as long as you keep it on the smaller side. Try 1 bluegill with a few smaller ones like longear, pumpkinseeds, and dollars. They will also help to color the tank up a bit. I would reccomend to atleast try live plants. They will most likely be fine if you get them in before they are too big to tear them up. I have live plants in all of my tanks because they help alot to help keep nitrates down.

Chad

With plants don't I need special aquatic soil etc? If theres some plants that I can do to avoid that it would be great, just the work for soil bottomed aquariums looks annoying.

You can keep plants in normal gravel or sand. But there are alot of nice plants that require no bottom at all. Hornwart is a nice floating plant that grow prolifically along with watersprite and the infamous duckweed. There is java moss that you can attach to stuff like a piece of wood or rock and it grows without being rooted or anything. The only thing that may be required for some plants would be extra lighting. I have all of the plants listed in tanks with no special lighting and they are all doing great. I even have a tank with only two 25 watt incadecant bulbs with plants that are doing fine.

Chad

as chad55 stated java moss needs nolights I have a clumb in my killie(mummichogs0 TANK AND HAVE NO LIGHT AND LITTLE SUNLIGHT so I would try hornwort(fish don't eat it) and java moss thst would be alot of plant considering they grow fast very fast mine grow 1-2 feet inlength every week or so



also I have several yoy 1-2 inch blugill if you want them.

Never seen java moss at the petstores near me, but I've seen other plants mentioned. Killier, thanks for the offer, I don't have any of the stuff together yet, still need tank, money, cycling time etc. In a couple months or so I'll be ready to start actually getting fish.

Never seen java moss at the petstores near me...

If your LFS doesn't sell it, try AquaBid.

Hi, I'm new here, just found there was a board for native fish, after searching tons of tropical boards for any information on bluegill keeping. I've asked many people, and I've received a lot of different advice..

I'll begin with a bit of my back story on why I want to keep bluegills. When I was young, like 6-8, I went to a camp, my dad and I managed to wrangle a bluegill, but it escaped. Another 15 minutes later, we have another one on the line, and we scoop him into a 1 gallon container full of lake water and into the trunk he goes the next day for the ride home. He was placed in a 10-20 (not sure was long ago) aquarium, where he lived a good 2 years, eating anything we would toss in. When it came time to move, we could not move him, we had a bearded dragon already to move.. I gave him to a friend, whom I thought was going to keep him in a nice tank etc. I found he released him into a local pond..
I miss the little guy and am interested in keeping some bluegills or bluegill/sunfish combo.

Now I'm most likely going to get a 55 gallon, although, if I can find a 6 ft 75g, or 6 ft 125 for cheap I'd get them, but I have access to brand new 55's for only 110$.
I have a friend in lousiana who has access to some fish which he can get for me come summer time. He has told me they really don't get real big where he's at, although I don't have specific sizes yet. I'd like to know how many I could get in a 55? I've been told 1 (everyone claims super highly aggressive, although most posts I've found claim otherwise) all th way up to 5 in the 55.

I know they are aggressive fish, I keep betta fish, and female bettas are aggressive much like the males, but if you put 3-6 into the tank together, they form a pecking order and the bullying goes down. Can this work with bluegills?

Also, Since they are from warmer waters, I will simply be keeping them at room temp, which will stay in the 70's, they are hardy fish, mine survived at 6 inches for 2 years in a 10-20 gallon with no temperature requirements or heavy filtering.. I have an african clawed frog, who will grow to be about 5 inches (the body not including legs) When I get the tank set up, would I need to worry about the bluegills attacking the frog? I'd be getting about 3 inch BG's and the frog is 3 inches right now, so she will probably be 4-5 inches by then, if they BG's grow up with the frog around, will they be less likely to attack?

Any insight regarding keeping these wonderful fish is appreciated!

On the 55 gallon tank, my Local pet store owner has these 75 longs and he said he sells more of them now because they are like only fifty bucks more. When I can see my way through financially I will be getting one ot those. They are really nice looking and of course twenty more gallons of water is a substancial increase.


I keep seeing the abreviation YOY. What does that mean?? And on the 55 gallon being $110.00 that seems on the high side to me. I would check around.

five bluegill 55 gallon tank. I see no problem. Of course I represent "the other side of the hobby" With properfiltration and 25% water change a month they would do fine. But like others have said get a little variaty to spice things up a bit. Maybe a couple of bluegill then some prettier sunnies. A protien skimmer would be in good order as well. Keep in mind though that bluegill do get big. And like sandtiger said a ten inch fish is no small fish. You are talking two Oscar sized fish. So if you had two of those I would definatly not add to much more. And the ones you do add make sure they are not considered food and on the other side make sure they do not get over five or six inches. So I think five or six fish would do fine. MNSHO

I keep seeing the abbreviation YOY. What does that mean??

Young Of Year. In other words, babies.

And on the 55 gallon being $110.00 that seems on the high side to me.

Is that tank only, or does that include hood?

For me, I have 3 fishtank options (stores):
Petco, petsmart, walmart.
Walmart never has any good sized aquariums, petsmart is usually cheaper than petco, so I might try there. Petco I know has 75's in all the time and 55s sometimes. No hood or anything... I've been watching craigslist, found a 90g that was listed for free, with filters, ready to be set up for saltwater or freshwater with minimal effort. Problem is, it was 3 hours away, and my truck can't make the drive lol.

55= 110$
75=180$

BUT I have a petco pals card, so its probably a lil cheaper hehe.

edit FFS, I just found a great deal on a 55g for 50$, and another deal for a 55,30,14 for 100$. Too bad I need a 75 now, in order to hold the number of fish I'm planning LOL>

...I've been watching craigslist...

What, may I ask, is craigslist?

craigslist.com, like a classifieds page. Its available for almost everywhere.

Hey Lee welcome to the forum...a really great place I find this to be...I constantly check Craigslist too for tanks...lots of people moving and selling their 100 gallon tanks for a good price....usually with stands etc...I alway try to look for acrylic tanks though...always too worried to buy someone's used glass tank...especially the larger ones...I am always afraid they would burst or leak from improper handling and care from the previous owner...but thats just me...
Anyway I think the bluegill or other sunfish could try and nip at the frogs arm and feet...I keep my Longear with a crayfish and the crayfish when I caught it was around an inch but now it has grew to 2.5 inches...and everytime I clean the tank and spook the cray...it'll come out of its burrow and the Longear will try to break off its appendages etc...it did that to one of my golden crayfish...
Also depending on which bluegill you catch...you could find a nicer colored one...I have caught many thats plain in color and some thats got that metallic purple with green bands...might be a coppernose hybrid etc...but there a lot to choose from.
Smbass...those are really nice pics you posted...are those fish that you collected? I noticed so many of them have a really nice fat round shape! Especially that Longear!

all of the pictures taken in tanks with the exception of the redbreast are fish I currently have, the pictures where they are being held by hands were caught and released except the o-spot I have him too.

Cool smbass...your area must support a really healthy fish population....

actually a lot of these fish I have gotten from others or on my travels around the eastern US on collecting trips or other trips that I happened to go fishing for a bit. An example is the nice male spotted sunfish, I caught that on my honeymoon in the Suwanee river in Florida.

actually a lot of these fish I have gotten from others or on my travels around the eastern US on collecting trips or other trips that I happened to go fishing for a bit. An example is the nice male spotted sunfish, I caught that on my honeymoon in the Suwanee river in Florida.

I saw the pictures of that spotted in your gallery, it's a very nice looking fish. It's the best looking spotted (or spotted picture) I think I have ever seen.

Thanks, but I'd have too look and see if myself or my wife actually took that pic. I have quite a good collection of pictures but they are not all taken by me. Mostly myself and my wife but there are some from close friends and relatives too. I'm working on getting them up in the NANFA gallery too but I'm also writing my masters thesis so time is a bit of an issue. Although I suspect that picture will be up there soon since I'm working on the lepomis genus for now. I feel bad sometimes because I post so many pictures I have to remove some from old posts due to not enough space in my attachments folder.

Just thought I'd post an update on how things are going! I haven't given up on keeping natives, quite the opposite. I decided buying a big tank was stupid, and am thinking of making one. No its not a 75, or even a 100. The tank I've been looking at building is 8 feet long, 3 feet tall, and 2 feet in width, holding an approximate 359 gallons of water! And having a large variety of sunnies, and even some cichlids if I kept the tank a little warmer. Do you think sunnies can do a temp around 75?

who needs a sunfish you could have a gar or even a pike in a tank that size
but as far as cichlids go I would stick with the smaller less agresssive ones aka convicts,jewels,firemouth,or even a dempsey or so

Well, I don't really like big gar or pike that much tbh, I'd rather have sunnies because I like them, and I like cichlids...
Also, about what fish to put in, convicts I've read are INCREDIBLY aggressive.. I have a young pair right now that I might consider putting in there.. I know one guy built an 800g tank and put a cons in, some paired up and dominated half the tank crowding them all to one side.. I've been suggested to stock it with mainly larger cichlids. Oscar and Jag are on the list along with most likely a JD.. After that im undecided.