UMBEE CARE. UMBEE BREEDERS.

[gturmindright]

I have been lurking around here for years. I have enjoyed mostly crystal red shrimp, and various other fancy tiny shrimp and I owned one midas cichlid that got to eat all of my shrimp culls and occasional nightcrawlers from the store. He recently passed away. It was a sad day. My daughter cried. We rescued him at about 8" from a pet store holding him in a ten gallon tank. I traded store credit from shrimp for this fish because she wanted him. He became our friend and we got six years out of him.

I recently have been feeling the need to get an umbee. It will be a 300+ gallon tank. I am not finding the type of information I'm looking for on umbee sourcing and umbee care. I'll list some questions.
1) I love the look of that turquoise and purple. My daughter does too (she's the primary excuse for getting this fish). Who is the person to go to that is going to have the highest quality fish? Anyone line breeding for color or anything? I am leaning toward Tangled up in cichlids as I have some AMAZING honduran red points from them but whoever does it best is what I want to talk to.
2) I'd imagine they are poop machines. If I were to have a 300 gal with a 100 gal sump with four filter socks how often will I be changing the socks? What type of water changes can I be expected to do on a weekly basis with a bare bottom tank if I feed pellets and live foods? My typical feeding schedule looks like 5 days pellets followed by a 6th day of veggie wafer and a 7th day of fasting. I'd like to switch the 5th day to live foods or at least raw foods.
3) Live/raw foods wise I have always wondered if a fish like an umbee can eat entire mussels or clams shells and all, can it eat large snails?
4) If I were to get a group of 6-10 fish and keep the best ones will I find it difficult to rehome the rest?
5) If you often feed live foods should you occasionally deworm the fish or just let it ride until it becomes a problem? I'm sure if you feed enough raw fish you will eventually be feeding them parasites.
6) I have never really been interested in dovii because all of the youtube videos are centered around making them seem mean and angry and everyone wants to have the most badass fish. I think that's stupid. It totally turned me off to dovii. My midas was super cool, he'd act like he wanted to bite my kids' fingers through the glass but he'd literally let you touch him and he never tried to bite me while doing tank maintenance. Which side of the spectrum is the typical umbee?
7) Are they jumpers? Do I need a heavy lid?
8) Can anything live with him? Can anything live with a pair? Snails, plecos, fish, etc?

 

[PhishMon84]

Tangled up in cichlids is definitely the best option for these guys.

there are undescribed locales. rio mag is the nicest IMHO.
Here an article written by the legend himself Jeff Rapps Kevin@TUIC has some on hand.

Husbandry Of Caquetaia umbrifera, The Unsung King Of New World Cichlids

cichlidae.com

 

[stiker]

Your questions are largely circumstantial and dependent on many factors.

Water changes depend on how many fish/ much food you feed. When growing fry I do 50% daily/ every second day, then reduce to every second day. My larger fish I do 50-60% twice a week but they are also fed less and understocked in comparison to fry / juveniles. 50% every second day is a good schedule to aim for.

No one can tell you how hard the extras will be to move on. It depends on your area / what is in desire. Plus keep in mind a very small percentage of people in the hobby have a large enough tank to even house 1 male umbriferus.

I wouldn’t feed live foods as you open up many avenues for parasites/ pathogens, plus it just isn’t needed. I’d stick to a high quality pellet food and you can give treats of muscles / other seafoods. Constantly using deworms / medications you greatly risk building medication resistance.

Tank mates are a no, unless you have a tank 600G+ I’d say. My pair wouldn’t even coexist with a group of Myloplus cf. schomburgkii (wide bar).

I have spawned the species many times and I will say your tank is not larger enough long term for a pair. It is hard to imagine a fish that can get to 30” when read it on paper but keep in mind this doesn’t include the sheer girth and height of the fish.

K cf. umbriferus ‘Rio Magdelana’ pair pictured


Male above, female below

 

[gturmindright]

My water changes will be based on nitrate levels but if you think that they will be high enough to warrant changing 100% of a 460 gallon system weekly I’ll probably go another direction. Also if a 8x3x2 isn’t big enough for a pair it’s probably not something I’m into. You do realize raw fish routinely contain worms right? You are saying you have or have seen a 30” umbee? Thanks for your input.

 

[stiker]

My water changes will be based on nitrate levels but if you think that they will be high enough to warrant changing 100% of a 460 gallon system weekly I’ll probably go another direction. Also if a 8x3x2 isn’t big enough for a pair it’s probably not something I’m into. You do realize raw fish routinely contain worms right? You are saying you have or have seen a 30” umbee? Thanks for your input.

With water changes you are not only removing nitrates, you are also removing growth inhibiting hormones/ chemicals dominate fish release. Performing the frequent water changes will all all the fish to grow at a quicker rate than if not performed.

Your 8x3x2 will be fine for a while, but not for life.

If you are feeding raw / frozen fish you are better off getting a marine fish to feed. Many parasites that survive in marine conditions won’t be able to survive freshwater environments. Freezing also will kill a large percentage of pathogens (but not all). I personally don’t use any fresh/ frozen fish. On the rare occasion I’ve used marine shrimp/ muscles.