[joshua_pope2001]

Here are some pics of a tank I put up about 3 weeks ago.... hope you enjoy.... its a work in progress...

 

[joshua_pope2001]

 

[fshfanatic]

Nice. What are you using equipment wise?

 

[joshua_pope2001]

I am using the Hagen t5 ho glo system for lighting, the rena xp4 for filtration, tunze 6045 powerhead, and two 300w smart heaters by Rena. I will also be adding a rena xp3 and a korillia 3 powerhead in the next month or so......

 

[Jeff.:P:.]

Awesome, love the idea. Always wanted to do something like this. How many bluegills do intend on having? are you catching these yourself?

 

[joshua_pope2001]

Awesome, love the idea. Always wanted to do something like this. How many bluegills do intend on having? are you catching these yourself?

I am only planning on having one bluegill in the tank. I did not catch the fish myself. A customer came into the store and had to move over seas. I told her I would take the fish since it is not a good idea to release it back into the wild. I guess she has had it since it was about 2 inches.

I am planning on adding a pumpkin seed, rockbass, lake perch, and a catfish..... any thoughts on this?

 

[fshfanatic]

If it were me, since they like to school, I would just keep a 1/2 dozen BG in it and call it good.

 

[joshua_pope2001]

here is a more recient pic that I took last night. I have added some crypts and a large klienbar sword

 

[joshua_pope2001]

pics of my bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus and green sunfish, Leopomis cyanellus.....

 

[davemonkey]

The wood looks awesome! Where did you get those pieces?

I really enjoy seeing native-type tanks.

 

[wiste]

Is it legal to keep gamefish such as a bluegill as a pet in Michigan?

 

[fish dork]

I like! The wood in this tank looks really good, I bet the fish are quite comfy in there.

 

[MadMike]

This is a beautiful tank and I like the wild fish concept. What type filtration are you using and where did you acquire the wood? Thanks.

 

[zer0zax]

Nice! As for the fish, make sure the pumpkinseed is close to the bluegill's size. I use to have 4 redear sunfish and 2 warmouth with a dinner plate sized bluegill. 2 days after adding the lunker bluegill all redears were dead! One BAD fish! Warmouths were fine though.

Catfish are awesome! Bullheads get big quick though, and make plecos look clean as far as the poo factor goes. Shell out a little money and buy a tadpole madtom or other madtom species. All of the character that the bigger cats have bundled up in 5 inches.

I spawned pumpkinseeds 2 times in my 110gal, I think one major factor (besides live food) was that I did not use a heater. The aquarium would get cold during winter, and when summer hit and the water in the aquarium reached mid 70's BOOM! Tons of babies. Don't want to raise 200 fry? My bullhead answered that question for me, but the pumpkinseeds gave him a bad beating.

The other factor was that I had a sand pool in the middle of the tank. The sunfish would make a nest in the middle and left my plants alone, so a bit of sandy beach is a must. Plus the fish loved to root around the sand for food (and they left my plants alone!).

The best advice I can offer is that you should provide a fast stream of current somewhere. My sunfish used to be VERY territorial, and any crossing of boundary lines meant an instant beating! Torn fins ! One day I decided I wanted to make waterchanges a little easier on myself and put an unused powerhead in with the output on full blast to drain water quicker, and like other aquariumites out there I got real lazy when the tank was filled back up, so the powerhead was left running and in one section of the tank fish would get blown stupid.

After an hour I decided I should stop the raging river and turn the aquarium back into the lazy backwaters that the fish come from, but I noticed all 3 pumpkinseeds were crammed in a little 5% area of my tank, right in front of the output! From then on they still had their preferred territories, but half of the time they would swim like crazy in the jetstream. Aggression came to a halt! Except during breeding time...Add a powerhead to blow the fish stupid. They will thank you!!

I love your tank! Keep us updated!

 

[joshua_pope2001]

The wood looks awesome! Where did you get those pieces?

I really enjoy seeing native-type tanks.

I work at Preuss Pets in Lansing, MI. You can check it out online at www.preusspets.com . We have a guy who travels to malaysia and africa and hand collects wood for us..... he gets us some pretty amazing wood......

 

[joshua_pope2001]

Is it legal to keep gamefish such as a bluegill as a pet in Michigan?

It is legal to keep the fish as long as they are in seaon and you have a fishing licence. So such fish as bass, for instance you could not keep in your aquarium out of the fishing season..... Since bluegill dont have a season it is ok to keep them in a home aquarium......The law is kinda screwed up that way here.

 

[joshua_pope2001]

This is a beautiful tank and I like the wild fish concept. What type filtration are you using and where did you acquire the wood? Thanks.

I am using a filstar rena canister filters xp4 and xp3 on this tank.

 

[joshua_pope2001]

Nice! As for the fish, make sure the pumpkinseed is close to the bluegill's size. I use to have 4 redear sunfish and 2 warmouth with a dinner plate sized bluegill. 2 days after adding the lunker bluegill all redears were dead! One BAD fish! Warmouths were fine though.

Catfish are awesome! Bullheads get big quick though, and make plecos look clean as far as the poo factor goes. Shell out a little money and buy a tadpole madtom or other madtom species. All of the character that the bigger cats have bundled up in 5 inches.

I spawned pumpkinseeds 2 times in my 110gal, I think one major factor (besides live food) was that I did not use a heater. The aquarium would get cold during winter, and when summer hit and the water in the aquarium reached mid 70's BOOM! Tons of babies. Don't want to raise 200 fry? My bullhead answered that question for me, but the pumpkinseeds gave him a bad beating.

The other factor was that I had a sand pool in the middle of the tank. The sunfish would make a nest in the middle and left my plants alone, so a bit of sandy beach is a must. Plus the fish loved to root around the sand for food (and they left my plants alone!).

The best advice I can offer is that you should provide a fast stream of current somewhere. My sunfish used to be VERY territorial, and any crossing of boundary lines meant an instant beating! Torn fins ! One day I decided I wanted to make waterchanges a little easier on myself and put an unused powerhead in with the output on full blast to drain water quicker, and like other aquariumites out there I got real lazy when the tank was filled back up, so the powerhead was left running and in one section of the tank fish would get blown stupid.

After an hour I decided I should stop the raging river and turn the aquarium back into the lazy backwaters that the fish come from, but I noticed all 3 pumpkinseeds were crammed in a little 5% area of my tank, right in front of the output! From then on they still had their preferred territories, but half of the time they would swim like crazy in the jetstream. Aggression came to a halt! Except during breeding time...Add a powerhead to blow the fish stupid. They will thank you!!

I love your tank! Keep us updated!

Thanks for all of the adivce. I am not planning on spawning any of the fish. It is good to know how if I ever decided to.

The bluegill I have has been in captivity since it was about two inches... He seems to do will with other fish and much to my amazement he is doing well with the plants...

as far as current I have the two out flows from the canister filters plus a tunze 6045 powerhead and a korillia 3 power head... this seems to be working out well and not tearing up the plants.... however, it is swooshing the floating plant I am using all round the tank....

I have nixed the bullhead Idea... I am afraid of what might happen to the plants.....

Thanks again for your input.... have a great day.

 

[zer0zax]

How do you like the korillia powerhead? Those look good to me, I heard they use very little power and distribute a lot of flow. Do you think 2 small ones by themselves would be enough for a 110gal tank (48"L)? If I get these later on and need the bigger korillia 3s I guess I will shell out a little money and do it right! Thanks again for sharing your setup!!

 

[joshua_pope2001]

How do you like the korillia powerhead? Those look good to me, I heard they use very little power and distribute a lot of flow. Do you think 2 small ones by themselves would be enough for a 110gal tank (48"L)? If I get these later on and need the bigger korillia 3s I guess I will shell out a little money and do it right! Thanks again for sharing your setup!!

I prefer the Tunze over the Korillia...... much better engeneering.... much less maintance and sound.....yes do it right the first time...... I see a lot of people going cheap at first only to end up spending much much more in the near future cause they dont like what they purchased.....