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Originally Posted by Eskimo
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Cool aquariums.
After I lost all of my tropical fish after the extended power outage following Super-storm Sandy, I decided to only buy cold-tolerant fish. I caught a bunch of one inch-long Pumkinseed sunfish and added them to the aquarium. The sunfish will sometimes eat floating pellets, but their favorite foods are earthworms and small pieces of shrimp.
Sunfish are definitely the most aggresive, nastiest fish I ever kept. They chase each other around constantly until they figure out who is the weakest one. Then they harass and beat-up that one weak fish mercilessly. The beat-up fish would turn black and hide in the rocks. Every time he poked his head out to eat, he would be in for another beaing.
Eventually I removed the fish that was getting beat-up. The sunfish then started fighting until they selected another fish to beat-up.
One-by-one I kept removing the fish that was getting beat up. I am now down to ONE Pumkinseed Sunfish.
The wood and rocks were getting kind of skuzzy, so I added a Chinese Algae Eater to keep the tank clean. So far, this arangement seems to be working.
I'll post some pics after I get home.
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I have African Cichlids (very territorial) and have had the same aggression issues you mentioned. They will chase, ram, and bite a fish til its wedged upside down stuck to the filter. Add some sort of structure to the aquarium so they have hiding spots to escape getting harrassed. Lace rock is great, as its sturdy enough to stack up in the tank and porous enough to hold TONS of good nitrifying bacteria. PVC tubes work well also, though they are not as aesthetically pleasing.
Your other option is to overstock(lots of fish) your tank and having NO structure in there. BY doing this, your "top dog" Sunnie can spread his aggression on multiple fish and not KO one specific fish. If you go this route, I would definitely over filter your aquarium. Never too much filtration in any case, but with overstocking you need it. I have a 55 gallon with two over the side filters, one rated for 75 gallons and the other for 55 gallons and have never had any water quality issues.
I own a small aquarium maintenance business on the side and have kept everything from Mollies and Guppies, to Malawi Cichlids, to locally caught Panfish, Smallies, Catfish and Pike. Throw me a PM if any of you guys have questions!
