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Re: NFC: basic Sunfish aquarium set up and feeding questions
I don't have a great deal of experience with sunfish but I am keeping some
Longears and several Orange Spotted sunfish. The longears are pretty
aggressive and a 40 gallon aquarium is at the small end of what I would keep
them in. On the other hand I have a pair of OS's in a 15 gallon. The
Longears will thin out fish they can swallow slowly over time I put a barrier
of floating acrylic mops around the tank and it helps to keep the aggression
down. I have floating plants in with them and they dont bother them. The
setup at the Nanfa convention had rooted plants and they left them alone.
Orange Spotted sunfish, on the other hand are pretty shy...they definitely
benefit from hiding places and a few rock caves and driftwood are in order.
I have a four inch Longear in with some Red Shiners I brought back from the
Mackinaw River in a 38 gallon. When I feed them the longear goes just as nuts
as the shiners. Its funny to watch him mimic the schooling habits of the
shiners. He eats whatever the shiners do, which is usually flake food, such as
earthworm flake and fd ocean plankton. My other four longears are in a 160
gallon vat with some rosefin shiners and SRBD. They leave the plants alone and
do not seem to be consuming the shiners and dace.
My pair of OS's are in a 15 gallon tank with a trio of Fundulus chrysotus, a
trio of shiners not id'd yet from the Little Darby, a trio of rainbow darters
and a pair of young greensides. The OS's eat earthworm flake and fd ocean
plankton too and once a week they get blackworms. This is a wonderful
aquarium The chrysotus spawn almost daily. Even the darters are eating the FD
ocean plankton and earthworm flake.
It did take a while before the sunfish began to eat and the female OS was the
last to come around.... I didnt see her eat for the first month I had her...now
she is as good an eater as the male.
CEFCHURCH at aol_com wrote:
> Over the weekend I caught several 3" to 6" sunfish (including two beautiful
> long ear). I put them in a 40 gallon aquarium with a couple of others.
>
> 1) What type of basic aquarium set up will they do best in? Do they need
> hiding
> places? So far, just a little chasing of each other in spite of size
> difference.
>
> 2) Can I put them in a planted aquarium?
>
> 3) Feeding tips needed. Do all sunfish eventually learn to
> take flake food and cichlid pellets?
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