# Anyone keeping Sunfish? Green or Pumpkinseed, or any variety, really?



## Brilliant (Apr 11, 2006)

No, but Ive observed them in the wild all my life!

Treat it like you would a large aggressive cichlid. Tank size upwards of an Oscar. Temperatures obviously lower probably no need for a heater.

I found a source where I could catch them in baby form, young ones. I am not sure what kind of game regulations there are for keeping these fish in this manner but I used to think about it alot.

Very attractive fish, much like a Ram yet larger.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

I have kept them. They can be very aggressive. But they sure are purdy.


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## mrbelvedere (Nov 15, 2005)

Centrarchidae act exactly like a cichlid. Keep it solitary, or in a group of at least 5. More would be better. They are wonderful at picking on the little guy. 

I have never in my life found a fish so willing to eat anything you put in there. They will eat from your fingers, and recognize their owner.


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## Ryzilla (Oct 29, 2005)

easiest fish to catch. Take a small treble hook, bait it with a small worm. Dip in any shallow water in the midwest and you have your self a red ear, green ear, or a blue.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

treble hook? Wow, that will do some damage.


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## TheOtherGeoff (Feb 11, 2003)

yeah i kept them, all sorts of sunfish, for many many years. pretty much any one native to missouri i have had at one point and time


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## daFrimpster (Mar 7, 2005)

Whatever kind of hook you use take a pair of pliers and flatten the barb on the hook. You might miss a few more but the ones you catch will be less prone to damage.


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## Ryzilla (Oct 29, 2005)

fshfanatic said:


> treble hook? Wow, that will do some damage.


Not really.. What would do some damge is if I took a small rapala minnow with a treble on the front and back and did the same thing. You could also use a regular hook.


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## mrbelvedere (Nov 15, 2005)

Trebles are unnecessary. A regular small hook will do fine. Trebles are more difficult to remove, and more likely to cause damage to the fish.


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## Mahlon (Sep 8, 2005)

Thanks for all the replies!! We have a bayou full of sunfish on the farm, so I may try it eventually. Will they root out plants? We've some really nice plants in that bayou, too, that would make good hiding.

Mr. Belvedere, how many of the smaller sunfish, (say if I could catch some orange spotted -they're about 4 inches max, I believe) would it be safe to keep in a 75 gallon tank? I know bluegill and greens can get pretty big.... so they might be out unless I have just one specimen. But then it would be a pretty lonely tank. I suppose crawdads could defend themselves....

Thanks again for all the replies and help.

Mahlon


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Didn't Scolley have Sunfish in his Big Kahuna at one time?


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## Ryzilla (Oct 29, 2005)

Betowess said:


> Didn't Scolley have Sunfish in his Big Kahuna at one time?


I know he had a large mouth bass that ate his shrimp (one of the best pics)


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## Mangala (Jul 23, 2006)

mrbelvedere said:


> Trebles are unnecessary. A regular small hook will do fine. Trebles are more difficult to remove, and more likely to cause damage to the fish.


honestly, this fish doesn't need a hook to catch. Since I was a kid, I used to stand in the lake at my uncle's lake cabin with a net and just wait for them to swim by... I guess it helps if you're really really white and have a dark mole on your knee that they think is food. They come by for the "bait" and then you scoop them up. We used to catch like 12 of them, put 'em in a bucket, then release them an hour later or so, for fear of killing them.

Technically, I would also have a large tractor-sized innertube floating over my shoulders, so that provided some shade, which I think they like. makes 'em feel more secure. I wouldn't do this if you don't trust your lake to be relatively clean of parasites, or if it's really cold out. 

PS: Someone once told me catching fish in this manner is illegal - at least, in Minnesota - so I don't know if you wanna do that.


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## TheOtherGeoff (Feb 11, 2003)

Mahlon said:


> Thanks for all the replies!! We have a bayou full of sunfish on the farm, so I may try it eventually. Will they root out plants? We've some really nice plants in that bayou, too, that would make good hiding.
> 
> Mr. Belvedere, how many of the smaller sunfish, (say if I could catch some orange spotted -they're about 4 inches max, I believe) would it be safe to keep in a 75 gallon tank? I know bluegill and greens can get pretty big.... so they might be out unless I have just one specimen. But then it would be a pretty lonely tank. I suppose crawdads could defend themselves....
> 
> ...


none of the sunfish i ever had uprooted the plants. however if you are wanting craydads, they will did the plants up and eat them. mine would dig in tank corners but that was only if they could survive the drop from the top to the bottom and escape the bullhead.

i used to keep bluegill, longear sunfish, greens, orange spots, rock bass, bullheads, crappie and a large mouth for alittle while. along with many others like various minnows, darters and such. the bluegill really werent that aggresive towards the others. none of them really didnt get along, except he largemouth and the biggest bluegill, who was about 3x the size of the bass. with that being said, the LM would always try to attack the bluegill which it didnt like much so they would fight. i later removed the largemouth because of this reason. 

in reguards to stocking, i would say that quiet a few orangespots would be very comfortable in a 75. prolley 8 or so. maybe even more. when i had my 55 with natives i had anywhere from 30 to just 5 in there. when i had 30 in there they were all small and i knew some wouldnt make it. they eventually died, or i would release them and then i just stopped adding fish because the others got too big and would eat the smaller ones.


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## Mahlon (Sep 8, 2005)

Mangala, yep, I think it's illegal in Mississippi, too, to catch them with a net. Not sure about if catching on your own property, though. I'll look into it. But yeah, I used to catch them with a net, too. The bayou runs off the Mississippi River, but it's _very _ slow moving and the water (surpisingly to most people) is very clear, so they are easy to see. The water is tanic, and has that yellow, tea tinge, but very clear.

TheOther Geoff, thanks for the info. The meanest, most cantacerous, dastardly fishes I ever kept from the swamp was were some baby catfish (channel cats) which I rescued from an almost dry beaver gully. They surely were going to die. Literally thousands of them in this little trough of water waiting for the end. I fished out some and put them in a tank and boy were they agressive towards a couple of brim already in there. I can't be sure because I didn't see it, but I think the catfish cut one brim in half with its dorsal fin. At any rate, the brim was cleanly sliced in half and drifting in two places at once by nightfall.

Mahlon


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