Sunfish

Why aren't they sold at pet stores? Some look similar in color to discus and are way more aggressive.

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Permalink Reply by seth roach on June 8, 2012 at 12:08am

cause who is gunna buy a sunfish in the us go anywhere and throw a worm in and you can get your own...i've wild caught some plants up here in the wilds of western new york and have moved them into my tank and their doing pretty awesome....haha start a new fad they even have almost as much variety as discus

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy robinson on June 9, 2012 at 3:25am

I did the same thing with a couple plants at a local gravel pit here. Its full of bass, big shell cracker bluegill, and northern pike, and shovelhead or flat head catfish.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy robinson on June 21, 2012 at 9:08pm

They would be much easier to take care of to lol, and not cost 80 to 90 bucks a piece.

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Permalink Reply by Mr awesome on June 23, 2012 at 5:44pm

I used to catch em all day long up in Maine. I wanted a good fish and everytime it's a dam sunfish!

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Permalink Reply by Corey Scherrer on June 8, 2012 at 11:48am

They aren't sold in pet stores because it is illegal to sell local species. Sunfishes which include Bluegill, True Sunfish, Pumpkin seeds, Small mouth bass and other various simliar type North American Cichlids are all found through the entire spread of North America. Some species of fish that are for example only found in Georgia such as the Dragon Goby can legally be sold in stores in other parts of the country that do not have them in their waters. That being said, back to Sunfishes... as i had mentioned before they are in fact all Cichlids and yes, just like South American and African Cichlids they are all aggressive to some degree, some more than others. They also adapt well to nearly any clean fresh water body and remain hardy in a rather large spectrum of temperatures. They also breeed relentlessly as most Cichlids do and will in fact over run a pond or other enclosed body of water if given the time and means to do so. Pumpkin Seed Sunfish , for example are generally docile fish where as Small Mouth Bass have been known to even domonate Green Terrors or Oscars when introduced to an aquarium setting. I have in fact included Blue Gill and 2 different Species of other Sunfishes into my 150gal aquarium with great success in the past. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy robinson on June 9, 2012 at 3:20am

There not illegal to sell here in ohio. My dad sells them at the bait shop, but people use them as bait rather than puting them in a tank. I've seen some really cool looking ones while fishing.

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Permalink Reply by Corey Scherrer on May 11, 2013 at 10:51pm

DEC would not appreciate your father selling those bro... might be a loop hole in the law, but also might now be.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on June 10, 2012 at 8:35am

My local fish store told me they are illegal to sell here in Massachusetts along with native plants. Seems kind of strange but that's the answer. If you catch one and take it home that's not illegal though. I'm not sure if the same goes for uprooting and transferring native plants but the chances of getting caught and prosecuted are probably about the same as getting hit by lightning. Native plants are beautiful and almost never die.

I think Sunfish are a great idea. They are beautiful fish and you won't need a heater either.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy robinson on February 14, 2013 at 2:23pm

Yeah, I found some nice parrots feather growing at a local gravel pit that is pretty easy to keep in a tank.

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Permalink Reply by Tristan O'Brien on June 11, 2012 at 10:00pm

Because more often than not they would become dinner

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Permalink Reply by Derreck F on June 13, 2012 at 1:20pm

Corey, They're not illegal to sell EVERY where in the USA but maybe in certain parts. Also, I didn't think cold water fish, like sunfish, fell under cichlids. Which are tropical fish... Sunfish fall under the family Centrarchidae not cichlidae. Not even are pigmy sunfish cichlids, they fall under the family Elassomatidae.