<< Like people, sunfish, and most fish for that matter have their own
unique personalities. you can find timid and overly aggressive fish of any
species. >>
I don't know if this is a factor or not, but I noticed the green sunfish that
I got out of the Mistequay creek is much less aggressive than the green
sunfish I caught in the ditch in front of my yard.This ditch dries up in the
summer, and has less space than the Mistequay when it is at its average size
for the year. This ditch gets its fish from the Mistequay actually because it
connects with the creek somewhere. Since the ditch is a more confined space,
I think that it makes sunfish more territorial. I have personally observed
sunfish biting others that got too close. Overall, it seems like sunfishes
caught from smaller, more confined areas such as ditches tend to be more
aggressive as a learned behaviour from being in close proximity to other
sunfishes more often.
<< 3.raise all your sunfish together from a small size, so they have the same
scents imbedded in them, and are used to the population >>
That's wierd; I never knew about the scent thing, that sunfish could smell
each other that much. I wish I had known to raise my sunfish together from a
young age; too late now :(
<< I don't like using
dither fish, since I am not interested in these species, or they are good
egg stealers.>>
Yeah, I don't really like the idea of dither fish either; I've never
conciously tried to use minnows as dither fish, but the first time I tried to
keep native fish I tried to keep a largemouth bass, green sunfish, two yellow
bullheads, some central mudminnows, and minnows together in a 30 gal. tank.
The minnows all ended up missing in action as well as a couple of the
mudminnows. The third mudminnow I found dead. Any other minnows I tried to
put in there ended up getting picked on. Considering the type of fishes I had
with the minnows I guess I shouldn't be surprised; it was also kind of a
worst-case scenario as far as tankmates for minnows goes. If I did keep
dither fish with sunfish I would use the idea of golden shiners that you
suggested.
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