Blue_trillo
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- May 10, 2017
- Messages
- 33
Ok so I decided to start an aquarium, never had one, but an ex had left a 50gal tank in my basement and I live next to a lake.... you can see where this is going.
I know almost nothing (have done some light reading online) about keeping fish. I did check the legality on the below mentioned fish for my locality and I am fine there.
Attempt #1 - Transferred 15 assorted sunfish ranging between 2 inches and 4 inches to the tank. Treated tap water, 375 gph canister filter, bacterial start bottle that claimed, "You can add fish immediately".
Massive error, water was not getting oxygenated nearly enough, lost 9 fish (all the bluegill) overnight. There were 3 green sunfish, and 3 other sunfish (not sure if red breasted or long ear or hybrid) that survived and seem to be fine now.
Attempt #2 - Put in a 175 gph aerating powerhead and a generic 12inch long bubble stone. Went out and acquired more fish, added back about 5 bluegill, 1 green sunfish, and 2 black crappie (one 9", the other 6"). This setup seemed to be going ok for 2 days, not much aggression noted between fish, no gasping for air. A couple sunfish seemed interested in some pondfish pellets I found at Petco but they mostly spit them back out. On day 3, I noticed the large black crappie being weird. It was swimming towards the top and then swimming on its side along the surface a foot or so before going back down. Then I saw one of the green sunfish doing the same thing.
So I looked up the most common problems in a new tank and decided to do a 30% water replacement. That has stopped the sideways swimming and the fish went back to playing in the powerhead output.
So on to the questions!
I know almost nothing (have done some light reading online) about keeping fish. I did check the legality on the below mentioned fish for my locality and I am fine there.
Attempt #1 - Transferred 15 assorted sunfish ranging between 2 inches and 4 inches to the tank. Treated tap water, 375 gph canister filter, bacterial start bottle that claimed, "You can add fish immediately".
Massive error, water was not getting oxygenated nearly enough, lost 9 fish (all the bluegill) overnight. There were 3 green sunfish, and 3 other sunfish (not sure if red breasted or long ear or hybrid) that survived and seem to be fine now.
Attempt #2 - Put in a 175 gph aerating powerhead and a generic 12inch long bubble stone. Went out and acquired more fish, added back about 5 bluegill, 1 green sunfish, and 2 black crappie (one 9", the other 6"). This setup seemed to be going ok for 2 days, not much aggression noted between fish, no gasping for air. A couple sunfish seemed interested in some pondfish pellets I found at Petco but they mostly spit them back out. On day 3, I noticed the large black crappie being weird. It was swimming towards the top and then swimming on its side along the surface a foot or so before going back down. Then I saw one of the green sunfish doing the same thing.
So I looked up the most common problems in a new tank and decided to do a 30% water replacement. That has stopped the sideways swimming and the fish went back to playing in the powerhead output.
So on to the questions!
- Are there too many fish in there right now? 14 fish: 2 crappie, 4 green sunfish, 3 unknown sunfish, and 5 bluegill. I think later when they grow the answer is an obvious yes but I aimed high anticipating a high loss rate from the capture/transfer process.
- Assuming the above answer is yes, what would be the best combination to keep that includes the crappie (I like them best)? I hear sunfish can be aggressive depending on gender and circumstances.
- Is overstocking to lower aggression a real thing ? If so does that change the above answers much ?