Keeping green sunfish in 10 gallon tank?

I catch them and they are no more then 4-6" long. Can I keep him in a 10 gallon tank with a filter and heater?

You can keep them alive in a 10-gallon, but a bigger tank would be better.

I'd move up to a 30 gal or even a 55 gal if possible.

We had one named Kujo.

One aggressive little fish. He would jump out of the water to take a crawler out of your fingers. :ThumbsUp

We just let him loose in the back yard pond, about 8x18.

Why a heater? Bigger would be better. Be careful adding other fish as they could be his next meal!:yikes

I used to keep tropical freshwater aquariums, 10 gallons is really small and really hard to take care of. Seems odd but the bigger the aquarium the easier it is to take care of actually.

Like deathb4disco said, you can keep it alive in a 10 gallon, but it's way too small. They need room to swim around. I could keep you alive in a small closet, but you wouldn't be happy or healthy.

A green sunfish can top out at what 12" or so (give or take). A single fish that big would need a minimum 30 gallon, and more comfortably a 55 gallon tank. If you wanted to keep 2 or 3 of them you'd be looking at more like a 90 gallon. More than 4 and you should really be in the 125 - 150 gallon range.

And if you wanted to keep other fish with them you'd be getting bigger in tank size again. Bigger fish need bigger aquariums. 10 gallon tanks are meant for small groups of small fish (tetra's, little tropical catfish, etc.), and maybe one or two small goldfish.

Used to do this for my kids when they were smaller, it was an interesting & rewarding hobby ... mostly bluegill, sunfish,
pumpkinseeds & perch. Somewhere I was told or read that a good rule to follow for freshwater aquariums of local fish
is 1" of fish per 1 gallon of water, ie 10gl = 1-10" fish or 2-5" fish, 3-3" fish, et...


Filtration is probably the biggest issue I dealt with, even with a small number of fish in two 55gl aquariums. Local gamefish are "power-poopers" and produce far more waste than your average aquarium fish. Keep an eye on water quality or they'll die off pretty quick. Extra filtration, add plants, vacuum, et...


Overfeeding can contribute to poor filtration, ie excessive waste. One minnow per fish every several days is more than enough. When I first started up the aquariums, couldn't keep fish alive for more than a week or so. Consulted the local aquarium shop owner and he pointed to my kids saying, "These your kids? You're overfeeding 'em, these two are in here everyday buying a dozen minnows". True story, :)


It usually isn't an issue with panfish, but local gamefishing regs/limits do apply to freshwater aquariums as well.

We netted 2 little guys (2") and my daughter has them in a 10 gallon tank. They've grown to about 4 inches in about 10 months. If they get any bigger we'll have to let them go. And they are a dirty little fish. Once a week cleaning is need on the tank.