saminator0107 Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 (edited) Hello all! I am currently in the process of cycling a 75G tank for a native tank setup. I plan to add 3-4 Warmouth sunfish to it. Has anyone on here keep or have kept sunfish, more specifically warmouth? Also, i believe im right in assuming keeping warmouth would be very similar to keeping green sunfish, bluegill, pumpkinseed, etc? I plan to buy the fish from a fish hatchery online if i cant catch any locally. They are somewhat uncommon where i am at locally, and its possible it is a crossbreed with another sunfish type. I want pure bred warmouth. I currently have 2 other tanks, a 30 gal octagon tank with guppies and ghost shrimp, and a 15 gal bowfront with medaka and ghost shrimp. This will be my first native tank, and my biggest. Included is a picture of the 75 in its current state. I used rinsed play stand as a substrate, so i am going to buy some root tabs before i add plants in. I plan to re-decorate with bigger objects when the fish get bigger. i am also going to get a planted tank light as well before i add plants, this light is just temporary. Included is a link to the fish i am talking about: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/war/ Edited February 28 by saminator0107 added tags, link to warmouth information. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luciferkrist Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 I have had poor luck with having more than 1 of each species in a native tank. I have a 210 that had 2 bluegill hybrids, a handful of shiners, a 2 year old bichir, about 200 guppies, and a bristlenose pleco. The bluegill starting eating/bullying the shiners as soon as the lights went out. The guppies were all gone in 24 hours. Then the 2 starting picking on each other, and the larger one ended up killing the slightly smaller one. He also started picking off the barbels from the pleco if I wasn't feeding everyday! I think people underestimate just how aggressive and territorial Lepomis species can be. If you get some VERY young ones, you might be okay, but don't bet on anything else living very long in there. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 On 2/27/2024 at 11:25 PM, Luciferkrist said: I have had poor luck with having more than 1 of each species in a native tank. I have a 210 that had 2 bluegill hybrids, a handful of shiners, a 2 year old bichir, about 200 guppies, and a bristlenose pleco. The bluegill starting eating/bullying the shiners as soon as the lights went out. The guppies were all gone in 24 hours. Then the 2 starting picking on each other, and the larger one ended up killing the slightly smaller one. He also started picking off the barbels from the pleco if I wasn't feeding everyday! I think people underestimate just how aggressive and territorial Lepomis species can be. If you get some VERY young ones, you might be okay, but don't bet on anything else living very long in there. I dont plan on keeping anything else in there. The fish i get will likely be around 2.5 - 3 inches in length at most. They will also all be put in at once. Any other fish in there would get thrown in as a feeder fish from time to time. May i ask what you fed them? Im thinking of starting a nightcrawler farm for them to serve as food. I cant really find anything online about what people feed their Lepomis. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luciferkrist Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 As odd as it sounds they LOVE the Hikari Massivore pellets I feed my bichir. They also really like the floating sticks from them too, but they will eat just about anything... except duckweed. Their favorite has been live small fish or ghost shrimp, I have a LFS that sells the shrimp 2/$1. Every couple of weeks I get a dozen or so and he gets a weekend of hunting. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 On 2/28/2024 at 2:25 AM, Luciferkrist said: As odd as it sounds they LOVE the Hikari Massivore pellets I feed my bichir. They also really like the floating sticks from them too, but they will eat just about anything... except duckweed. Their favorite has been live small fish or ghost shrimp, I have a LFS that sells the shrimp 2/$1. Every couple of weeks I get a dozen or so and he gets a weekend of hunting. Awesome, thanks! Ill have to get me some of that food, then. My LFS has 1 ghost shrimp for 25 cents. I actually have an extra 5 gallon that i got for free off marketplace, so maybe its time i got into shrimp breeding, lol! I also got this 75 gallon for entirely free off marketplace. It came with 1 koi, a fancy goldfish and 2 plecos. All were too big for the tank. Sold them to my LFS for 25 bucks in store credit. It came with the tank, stand, filter, and some fake plants, which went in the trash, not personally my thing. Also, its not a cheapo petsmart tank, its a marineland! All i did is remove the typical "beginner gravel", clean it up real good, rinse some play sand, decorate it with some extra rocks i had laying around from previous tanks, and that filled er' up! Just a waiting game now, and im super excited because this is my 3rd tank ive ever had and my first big boy tank. And i got it all for almost free, minus the play sand. Next step is to get some fish, some root tabs, better lighting and plants. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Payne Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 In my experience, warmouth are easy keepers. I would start off with something that looks like a live food item, such as vibra bites, and then pick a good quality floating pellet of your choosing. Once they begin to associate you with food they are constant beggars. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 On 2/28/2024 at 5:22 AM, T. Payne said: In my experience, warmouth are easy keepers. I would start off with something that looks like a live food item, such as vibra bites, and then pick a good quality floating pellet of your choosing. Once they begin to associate you with food they are constant beggars. Good to know. You think 4 is enough for a 75 gal? I plan to start a night crawler farm after i get the fish. While the worms reproduce ill probably see if i can get some frozen shad to work. Just depends if i get them from a fish hatchery or my local waters. If from a hatchery im gonna try the pellets that @Luciferkrist recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Payne Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 I think eventually, 4 adults might be pushing it in a 75 gallon. I would also treat them like cichlids and I would go with an odd number. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tlindsey Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 On 2/28/2024 at 10:48 AM, T. Payne said: would also treat them like cichlids. Yes great advice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macdaddy36 Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 On 2/27/2024 at 11:50 PM, saminator0107 said: Hello all! I am currently in the process of cycling a 75G tank for a native tank setup. I plan to add 3-4 Warmouth sunfish to it. Has anyone on here keep or have kept sunfish, more specifically warmouth? Also, i believe im right in assuming keeping warmouth would be very similar to keeping green sunfish, bluegill, pumpkinseed, etc? I plan to buy the fish from a fish hatchery online if i cant catch any locally. They are somewhat uncommon where i am at locally, and its possible it is a crossbreed with another sunfish type. I want pure bred warmouth. I currently have 2 other tanks, a 30 gal octagon tank with guppies and ghost shrimp, and a 15 gal bowfront with medaka and ghost shrimp. This will be my first native tank, and my biggest. Included is a picture of the 75 in its current state. I used rinsed play stand as a substrate, so i am going to buy some root tabs before i add plants in. I plan to re-decorate with bigger objects when the fish get bigger. i am also going to get a planted tank light as well before i add plants, this light is just temporary. Included is a link to the fish i am talking about: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/war/ I have never kept lepomis sunfish, but I have heard they can be very agressive and are comparable to cichlids of similar sizes. Considering they get fairly large, 4 seems like a lot in that size tank. Of all the sunfish, they are most closely related to green sunfish. I think their behavior is also similar to rock bass. I know from fishing that these fish can be very aggressive, taking on lures 1/2 their length. In my opinion, that tank seems very open so add lots of plants. Warmouth are found in weedy, slow moving lakes. The warmouth may try to eat the plants. I would probably get just one of them and maybe try some other fish. I have never had a large native tank but have looked into them and somethings you might want to consider could be central mud minnow (these are related to pike but much smaller) or bullheads/madtoms possibly. Jonah's aquarium is a great resource. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biotope Biologist Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 @Fish Folk has some NANF tanks. I have kept sunfish before mine were pumpkin seed. They lived in a tank of rejects and behaved like any other aquarium fish. I did feed them live insects and fish when they were young but they quickly started taking frozen foods and weirdly hikari algae wafers. They were quite territorial over those haha 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 On 2/28/2024 at 9:48 AM, T. Payne said: I think eventually, 4 adults might be pushing it in a 75 gallon. I would also treat them like cichlids and I would go with an odd number. Yeah, thats what i was thinking. 4 might be pushing it a little. I will end up getting 3 at most then. On 2/28/2024 at 1:48 PM, macdaddy36 said: I have never kept lepomis sunfish, but I have heard they can be very agressive and are comparable to cichlids of similar sizes. Considering they get fairly large, 4 seems like a lot in that size tank. Of all the sunfish, they are most closely related to green sunfish. I think their behavior is also similar to rock bass. I know from fishing that these fish can be very aggressive, taking on lures 1/2 their length. In my opinion, that tank seems very open so add lots of plants. Warmouth are found in weedy, slow moving lakes. The warmouth may try to eat the plants. I would probably get just one of them and maybe try some other fish. I have never had a large native tank but have looked into them and somethings you might want to consider could be central mud minnow (these are related to pike but much smaller) or bullheads/madtoms possibly. Jonah's aquarium is a great resource. I plan to add plants when the tank is finished cycling. I have someone giving me some extra clippings they have this weekend. I will also be getting some root tabs since this is rinsed play sand. Also, can you provide a link to Jonah's aquarium? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tlindsey Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 On 2/28/2024 at 5:52 PM, saminator0107 said: Yeah, thats what i was thinking. 4 might be pushing it a little. I will end up getting 3 at most then. I plan to add plants when the tank is finished cycling. I have someone giving me some extra clippings they have this weekend. I will also be getting some root tabs since this is rinsed play sand. Also, can you provide a link to Jonah's aquarium? Great vendor ordered Rainbow Darter from them. https://g.co/kgs/1vEVa1Y 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 On 2/28/2024 at 5:16 PM, Tlindsey said: Great vendor ordered Rainbow Darter from them. https://g.co/kgs/1vEVa1Y Ah yes i've been on there before when seeing where to order some warmouth from. Sadly they don't have warmouth which is what i really am going for. I have also contacted my local game warden to be sure i can legally get them shipped to me and i can keep them. I was told "I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to" so i got the green light from the POPO, LOL! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 My suggestion is… be mindful of how huge Warmouth grow. They can max out upwards of 11 inches… IMHO … that will be gigantic for a 75 gal. You’ll likely have aggression issues. If you’re open to a very safe species much smaller, buy some Enneacanthus. I keep E. obesus… They’re perfect for a 75 gal. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macdaddy36 Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Bantam Sunfish (Lepomis symmetricus) are very closely related to Warmouth, being located in the same clade within the genus Lepomis. They look similar, with the main difference being that Bantam Sunfish are significantly smaller with a max size of about 4 inches. The only problem is that Bantam Sunfish may be hard to find, but I imagine Warmouth would also be hard to find. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doktor zhivago Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 I've never kept sunfish but I've caught a lot of them on ultra light gear. They can get absolutely enormous as far as a tank is concerned. The smaller ones like pumpkinseed or green sunfish (if it's legal they're invasive in some states) or even long ear sunfish may be a better choice. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 On 2/29/2024 at 7:16 AM, doktor zhivago said: I've never kept sunfish but I've caught a lot of them on ultra light gear. They can get absolutely enormous as far as a tank is concerned. The smaller ones like pumpkinseed or green sunfish (if it's legal they're invasive in some states) or even long ear sunfish may be a better choice. Pumpkinseed wouldnt be a bad idea, they are common here and native. On 2/29/2024 at 7:09 AM, macdaddy36 said: Bantam Sunfish (Lepomis symmetricus) are very closely related to Warmouth, being located in the same clade within the genus Lepomis. They look similar, with the main difference being that Bantam Sunfish are significantly smaller with a max size of about 4 inches. The only problem is that Bantam Sunfish may be hard to find, but I imagine Warmouth would also be hard to find. Ive caught some warmouth before, usually by accident. Bantam sunfish are not local/native ASFAIK. On 2/28/2024 at 7:42 PM, Fish Folk said: My suggestion is… be mindful of how huge Warmouth grow. They can max out upwards of 11 inches… IMHO … that will be gigantic for a 75 gal. You’ll likely have aggression issues. If you’re open to a very safe species much smaller, buy some Enneacanthus. I keep E. obesus… They’re perfect for a 75 gal. Thanks for this. I took a measuring tape and set it to 11 in, and put in on the glass of my aquarium, yikes. 11 inches is more than i thought (lol). Now that i visualized it, yeah. Another persons comment said pumpkinseed, they get about 8 inches, so i might do those, or some long ear sunfish. Long ear get to about 7 inches. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macdaddy36 Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 On 2/29/2024 at 5:59 PM, saminator0107 said: Pumpkinseed wouldnt be a bad idea, they are common here and native. Ive caught some warmouth before, usually by accident. Bantam sunfish are not local/native ASFAIK. Thanks for this. I took a measuring tape and set it to 11 in, and put in on the glass of my aquarium, yikes. 11 inches is more than i thought (lol). Now that i visualized it, yeah. Another persons comment said pumpkinseed, they get about 8 inches, so i might do those, or some long ear sunfish. Long ear get to about 7 inches. Pumkinseed can also get quite large. I've personally caught ones up to 10 inches, and my high school biology teacher had 1 in a 180 gallon that was probably at least 10 inches. I don't know about Longear Sunfish though, I think they are a rarer species. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted March 1 Author Share Posted March 1 On 2/29/2024 at 5:07 PM, macdaddy36 said: Pumkinseed can also get quite large. I've personally caught ones up to 10 inches, and my high school biology teacher had 1 in a 180 gallon that was probably at least 10 inches. I don't know about Longear Sunfish though, I think they are a rarer species. Okay, well, im about to go trapping. The tank has finished cycling. Ill post here if i end up getting any fish. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 (edited) Hello all! Sorry for the delay. So, i ended up catching 4 green sunfish. They are temporarily in the tank for now, and yes they will get put back in the same water i got them from within a few months. I have contacted a breeder that has warmouth. He said the ones he breeds only get up to about 8 inches, which would be perfect for my 75. Also, your probably wondering about the picture i have included of the car. Long story short, me and the GF were on the way back home with the fish, and we were rear ended by a speeding drunk driver while stopped at a red light. Thankfully the bucket with the fish in it had a lid on it, and my girlfriend had the bucket between her feet on the floorboard, which i think both things saved the fish. Me and her are not seriously hurt, just some whiplash and we are insanely sore, which is a given. Sadly, i think my brand new car is totaled. 2023 VW jetta, Manuals trans, 6k miles, just gone. The car has frame damage so im sure insurance will total it out. Sucks, but i have very good insurance and that will work itself out. Most importantly me, my girlfriend and the fishies are all okay. The fish are adjusting to the tank just fine, and all of them have already eaten some worms. I will end up ordering some warmouth and putting these guys back. These guys might be the first sunfish to survive getting hit by a drunkerd!! LOL! Feel like owe them a TON of worms for their troubles, lol. I have emailed the breeder and he said they will not be available to sell for another few months when it warms up in ohio, where he is located. This is the breeder if anyone is interested: http://www.zimmermansfish.com/Price.html Edited March 3 by saminator0107 Spelling mistake. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tlindsey Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 (edited) On 3/2/2024 at 8:10 PM, saminator0107 said: Hello all! Sorry for the delay. So, i ended up catching 4 green sunfish. They are temporarily in the tank for now, and yes they will get put back in the same water i got them from within a few months. I have contacted a breeder that has warmouth. He said the ones he breeds only get up to about 8 inches, which would be perfect for my 75. Also, your probably wondering about the picture i have included of the car. Long story short, me and the GF were on the way back home with the fish, and we were rear ended by a speeding drunk driver while stopped at a red light. Thankfully the bucket with the fish in it had a lid on it, and my girlfriend had the bucket between her feet on the floorboard, which i think both things saved the fish. Me and her are not seriously hurt, just some whiplash and we are insanely sore, which is a given. Sadly, i think my brand new car is totaled. 2023 VW jetta, Manuals trans, 6k miles, just gone. The car has frame damage so im sure insurance will total it out. Sucks, but i have very good insurance and that will work itself out. Most importantly me, my girlfriend and the fishies are all okay. The fish are adjusting to the tank just fine, and all of them have already eaten some worms. I will end up ordering some warmouth and putting these guys back. These guys might be the first sunfish to survive getting hit by a drunkerd!! LOL! Feel like owe them a TON of worms for their troubles, lol. I have emailed the breeder and he said they will not be available to sell for another few months when it warms up in ohio, where he is located. This is the breeder if anyone is interested: http://www.zimmermansfish.com/Price.html No need to apologize good that you and your girlfriend didn't get hurt. Edited March 3 by Tlindsey 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 On 3/2/2024 at 7:55 PM, Tlindsey said: No need to apologize good that you and your girlfriend didn't get hurt. Thanks, im honestly surprised the fish survived, but glad they did. Well... nobody can say they aren't hardy! lol. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saminator0107 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 Just wanted to say the fish are doing awesome. 3 of them are still a little spooked by humans, but the big one out of the bunch has been eating worms and doesnt mind giving me a show. Its only been just over 3 days since they were added. https://youtube.com/shorts/dpJNLwFatzk?si=JN1JMunseo9emOTM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doktor zhivago Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Greenies are one of my faves They get such a cool blue pattern that seems like they can control? I don't know if fish can actually change color like that or if it's just iridescence 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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