Hi I'm going fishin with my dad tommorow and we were gonna try to catch some sunfish to go in with my goldies. Anyone ever do this before or anyone have any suggestions? THanks in advance.

I wouldn't recommend it. Adult sunfish, I assume you're talking about bluegills and pumpkin fish, etc., will eat smaller goldfish and would probably harass the larger ones as well. Small common goldfish are sometimes used as live bait. If I'm not mistaken, sunfish would require a warm water enviroment, where goldfish are a coldwater species.

I read up on sunfish and they are cold water fish also and sadly I'm getting rid of all my smaller goldfish so that there is more space for the big ones. My bigger goldfish that I will be keeping is at least 5 inches long. Anybody no any sites about sunfish? Thank you.

I'm sure Sandtiger would have more information on compatibility since he keeps some himself, but not with goldfish. How big is the aquarium?

You don't know what kind of diseases etc that the sunfish could bring in to the aquarium. The sunfish will be immune to many diseases its exposed to in its home, but your goldfish will not be.

I didn't even think about the disease thing. I guess I'll have to talk to sandtiger. The aquarium is 55 gallons. Thank you everybody!

also, do you know how big they get as adults, because you don't what a huge fish in your tank fighting your little goldie for space

no I don't know how big they get but I'm assuming they don't get that big because the ones I've seen in my area are all at most 4 inches big I've never seen any bigger.

the world record fish i s about a 1 lb.
but i wouldnt expect anyfish to reach anything past 5 inches in your tank.

i would advise against it just becuase they are a wild species and taking them from a huge lake and putting them in a 55 gal isn't too humane. also i from from my fishing experiences that the sunfish would shred up your goldfish's tails.

upon further review the sunfish might do alright with a comet/common that didnt have the spectacular fins. both fish live in a community... make sure the sunfish are non nesting females though. remember sunfish are rather agile and wouldnt do well with a wider slower fish. sunfish would eat minnows and worms rather than flakes. so maybe feed your fish flakes and bloodworms? i had some in a tank at my dads and my uncle had a few in his 70, with a small channel cat, large mouth bass, and smalll mouth bass (both under four inches) however it was only until his pond (a 30 ft deep pond) was set up.

Sunfish are ciclids, they are a little aggresive. Kissy is right about the diseases they can carry. Some of the diseases are very hard to erradicate from your fishtank once it has had them. Another thing is there are some extremely hardy varieties of parasites that come from the wild. I wouldn't risk it.