Cichlid Found at Work

I was at work, putting the feeder fish into the tank when I noticed that one fish didn't look like a comet gold fish. I scooped it out and showed it to my manager. I figured it was a cichlid and she told me I was right and that since it was not a fish we carried, I could take it home if I wanted it.

Here is a picture of it.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...chiclid002.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...chiclid001.jpg

nice looking baby there aint sure of which type it is but i only keep the brighter colored African cichlids

my local pet shop had a parrot and some other kind cross breed very neat looking babies they made. point being once they got big enough to start fending for themselves he moved them to a tank of feeder fish cause they would easily stand out. that might of been what your supplier did or did it so the babies could get all they wanted to eat off the feeder fish.

i myself hate goldfish they are very nasty fish and used as a feeder is a very job job for them. but watch out if they get in a local creak or pond. i know of 2 instances where they got introduced to 1 a pond and 2 a creak. and they took over the pond when it rains or you throw a bucket of pond feed fish food the top the pond turns gold from all the gold fish. the owner of the pond has poisoned them blew his damn a couple of time second time he had it dug deeper but still the gold fish returned once the pond was refilled. the creak they stay kind of contained due to spots drying out here and there in the summer but still there is sections choked full of gold fish that you can literally reach in and grab them or use a net and get them by the dozens

It's a sunfish...... they come in with the feeders because their raised up in the same ponds as the goldfish and sometimes you get a few in your shipment by accident. He is a cold water fish and will eat goldfish so there isn't anything you can put in his tank with him except other sun fish.

Any links to information on the sun fish? I tried looking it up on google and all I got was this weird, giant fish called a sunfish that looks nothing like my little guy.

He is a bluegill sunfish as far as I can tell. I'm trying to find some basic information as far as keeping him in an aquarium. I have no idea what to feed him but when I looked up general info, it says he can reach a length of up to 16inches.

that will be one heck of a bluegill when it reaches that size biggest i ever caught was size of a large hand and those made very good fillets. at 16 inches would be a meal in itself. but ones i caught were wild not cage raised which seem to get bigger if you got them set-up right.

as far as what to feed i know to catch them I've used crickets, worms (night crawlers and red wigglers) pieces of hot dog (plain Jane hot dogs not a major brand name)

sure the pet shop could get or has a good selection to choose from (maybe a even mix of foods made from plants then mixed with food made from meats) brine shrimp (all fish seem to love them even plant eaters and poop eaters) meal worms,wax worms,phoenix worms(sorry if i misspelled the names)

I'm sure theres got to be forum somewhere for them every animal seem to have it's own forum now a days yahoo search turns up some stuff in searches that Google don't show from time to time and theres at least 6 other search engines beside those 2 (say those 2 plus other 6 because thats how many my PC has in browser 8 in all) but there is probably way more. maybe check any forum for any kind of fish people over seas might go nuts over bluegills like we do for African cichlids


not sure of temp to keep water but they are usually in water around 10 foot or less in the mid-west lake Mattoon has tons of them. lake Shelbyville has them and i think lake Sarah. think dnr has books on all fish country wide

As for bluegill and most sunfish. They do very well on frozen fresh water flat packs. They love bloodworms especially. Also be careful as many states do require a permit to posess them in captivity. Most states it is also illegal to sell, export or release them into the wild due to disease issues.

As for water temp they are a cold water fish and thrive in 50 - 70 degree water. 60 is about optimal.