Florida themed tank?

[powellmacaque]

What are the chances of actually finding a pond place that stocks those? I've googled no results.

There is a chain of lakes around my town, and every dock has hundreds of these fish around it.

Could I keep larger minnows (mollies, mosquito fish, shiners) with a group?

 

[H3D]

What are the chances of actually finding a pond place that stocks those? I've googled no results.

There is a chain of lakes around my town, and every dock has hundreds of these fish around it.

Could I keep larger minnows (mollies, mosquito fish, shiners) with a group?

I assumed you were going to catch them.

 

[powellmacaque]

I probably will. Can't see paying much for a fish I can catch.

I would really like to make it my goal to see if I can breed these fish.

 

[Notophthalmus]

The Enneacanthus sunfish (bluespotted, banded, blackbanded) are great little fish, and you can keep them with most minnows, killifish, etc. They are generally not compatible with larger sunfish (Lepomis sp.), at least not the ones you mentioned. Certain moderate-sized, small-mouthed Lepomis, such as orangespotted sunfish (L. humilis) and longears (L. megalotis) are somewhat compatible with smaller fish. These are also among the prettiest sunfish.

Do not put mosquitofish (Gambusia) in a community tank; they can be very aggressive. Mollies will be fine so long as the water chemistry suits them; they won't fare well in an acidic, blackwater-type setup. Most minnows do well in community tanks, but there are a few exceptions; big-mouthed chubs, especially Semotilus species, will happily eat all smaller fish.

Look up your Fish and Game dept.'s regulations before you wild-collect fish. Many of these species can be ordered from online vendors like Sach's, Jonah's Aquarium, and KSI Aquatics.

 

[powellmacaque]

Sach's is only 3 hours away from me, I might just take a drive up one day.

Now that I'm looking at slightly smaller fish, could somebody recommend a stocking option? (With Enneacanthus being the focal point) Are different species of the genus compatible with one another?

Would it be possible to have a NA community including the aforementioned fish in something 90 gallons or under?

 

[caitylee]

This thread is so interesting! I too live in central Florida. I have a tank with longear's a redbreast, and a blue gill. Although here shortly the blue gill and redbreast are getting upgraded and the longears are getting more tank mates. I'm getting a few darters and shiners for it.

 

[cam191919]

i would definatly suggest dipping a net in a few ponds

as for tiny sunfish, im gunna go with elassoma zonatum

 

[Notophthalmus]

Sach's is only 3 hours away from me, I might just take a drive up one day.

Now that I'm looking at slightly smaller fish, could somebody recommend a stocking option? (With Enneacanthus being the focal point) Are different species of the genus compatible with one another?

Would it be possible to have a NA community including the aforementioned fish in something 90 gallons or under?

Different Enneacanthus are compatible, so long as they all have plenty of hiding places. I think a 90 would do well with perhaps one of each Enneacanthus and schools of 6-10 each of golden topminnows (Fundulus chrysotus), redfaced topminnows (F. rubrifrons), and bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei).

Round out the bottom with 2-3 tadpole madtoms (Noturus gyrinus) and a handful of darters. The most colorful Florida darters are probably the coastal darter (Etheostoma colorosum) and the gulf darter (E. swaini), but there are several other very handsome species; I'm partial to the brown darter (E. edwini), the goldstripe darter (E. parvipinne) and the speckled darter (E. stigmaeum).

You could also add ghost shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus), various snails (large operculate species are better, as darters will suck smaller snails out of their shells), and even dwarf sirens (Pseudobranchus species).

Here's a list of Florida's fishes, both native and introduced: http://www.floridafisheries.com/fishes/sci_name.html

 

[powellmacaque]

What would you define as a school for the Enneacanthus fish?

 

[Notophthalmus]

They don't school. I think one of each of the three species would allow for minimal aggression and not require you to sex fish. Alternatively, you get several fish of one or more species if all were one sex. Or you could get a trio (1 male, 2 female) of any or all species. There's plenty of room, you just don't want a situation where the males are beating each other up over limited females.