Experienced umbee keepers!

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darwinvsjesus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 5, 2010
130
1
0
Tonawanda, NY
Hey everyone,
In my ever-deepening adoration of the new world cichlids, I have become curious about this most graceful and awe-inspiring creature.

I am not asking for things like "they are real mean n u needa keepem in a 300 gallon tank by temselves or else ur gona hav problmes wit agression they are real fast growers n they dont ever get along wit things nless u can put them in a 2k thousand tank prob "

I am calling on those who have had extended experience with these cichlids. For some reason, I have this perception of the Umbee where it has a mental category all to itself; It is almost mystical. I just want to know what you guys have seen with growing them out. When do they begin to turn blue? when do they begin to show extreme dominance?

I'm very curious if what they say is true - all umbees are mean. I don't believe it for a second. Maybe your umbee was,but I'm certain that somewhere out there a timid umbee existed. I just want to know about what it's like to actually experience sharing space with one, what it's like to interact with them. DO you bond? do you, who have owned umbee, do you feel like you had a connection with your fish?

and at the same time, like I said, i'm curious about the other things too like what is the variation in terms of temperment. Is there any deviation at all or do they really all become the terrorists of the fish world.

I don't know, thanks everyone. I just felt this really sudden urge to try and document mine/other peoples experiences with fish beyond compatibility and how much nomnom chomping they did.

also:
http://youtu.be/plJrXEKjXqM
 
I don't have much experience with them (only kept them for a few months) but I've seen their attitude, read a lot about them and talked to experienced Umbee keepers before I even got mine.

The first Umbee I got was quite possibly the most aggressive fish I've ever kept. A complete psycho from day one. I got him at around 4" and he killed 2 Asthateros Robertsoni the first day, then he killed a 4" JD (picture below), a breeding pair of Convicts, several Colombian/Black Skirt tetras, beat up a Salvini pair and everything else I tried to put with him, except a festae because it was behind a divider lol

This is the JD:
dither.jpg

This is the Umbee:
umbeetank7.jpg

He now lives in the pond and is around 6" or 7".

My current pair are the complete opposite. They are between 5 and 5.5" (male is in my avatar) and they are aggressive but even after laying eggs they haven't killed anything, including a 4" JD dither I put in their tank. In fact they leave it alone most of the time, only chasing him when he gets close to the nest. They also tolerated a 2" Istlanum and 12 Syno catfish that were in there, except for a small syno that the male ate, but I don't count that as aggression.

I guess their temperament varies as with most fish, but due to their adult size and strength they can do much more damage than most other species. As far as I know they get increasingly aggressive and territorial as they grow, and many people keep them in their own tanks, but I've seen a few aquariums with large Umbee pairs living in communities with other large fish relatively peacefully.

In regards to their color, my first Umbee was pretty plain as you can see and even now at 7" he hasn't developed much color. Some call them "late bloomers", I think genes play a big part. Here's my current F1 young male at around 5":

12.jpg

14.jpg

4.jpg

And here's a video of him breeding with his female:

[YT]ubxXCiVM5L0[/YT]

They're an amazing fish, very interesting to watch and apparently very smart. Skittish at first but with time they get very personable.

dither.jpg

umbeetank7.jpg

12.jpg

14.jpg

4.jpg
 
And the growth rate according to another Umbee keeper:

Jan 2007 - 3.25"
Feb 2007 - 4"
June 2007 - 7"
Aug 2007 - 8"
Nov 2007 - 9"
Mar 2008 - 10"
Aug 2008 - 11"
Click to expand...

Oct 2005 to July 2008:

Roughly 1.25" TL to 17" TL raised in a 360 gal with just a common pleco.
Click to expand...

So it's not THAT fast. They take a few years to reach their adult size.
 
Thank you for the reply. I'm growing one out. Got him the sunday after thanksgiving from absolutely fish in Montclair/Clinton NJ, at about 1.5 i". He's a good 4.5" now. I say 'he' because I was told he was a wild caught male. I don't know if I buy it. This fish is real timid. I thought he was ready for my big display tank but my festae of similar size really messed him up. But my grow/qt tank is sick, so he's in a 55 with a moonlight gourami, rts, amphilophus robertsoni, a few plecos [L200, L264, L147] and he really doesnt bother anyone. I am in my room literally all day watching him to make sure he isnt bullying anyone. He's not. But he's smart. He checks everything out carefully. I was floating a fish the other day and he was eyeing the bag for several minutes before leaving it alone.

My guess is, given their adult size, at 4-6 inches they are still just babies. He'll probably change as he matures. But I have a philosophy about cichlids regarding their 'agression'. I may be wrong about it, but my fish live in total harmony. Even when the dovii/Jag spawned I had zero aggression problems.

This umbee I have is a real smart fish. I am excited to see what becomes of it.
 
I'm intrigued to hear this philosophy?
 
darwinvsjesus said:
Thank you for the reply. I'm growing one out. Got him the sunday after thanksgiving from absolutely fish in Montclair/Clinton NJ, at about 1.5 i". He's a good 4.5" now. I say 'he' because I was told he was a wild caught male. I don't know if I buy it. This fish is real timid. I thought he was ready for my big display tank but my festae of similar size really messed him up. But my grow/qt tank is sick, so he's in a 55 with a moonlight gourami, rts, amphilophus robertsoni, a few plecos [L200, L264, L147] and he really doesnt bother anyone. I am in my room literally all day watching him to make sure he isnt bullying anyone. He's not. But he's smart. He checks everything out carefully. I was floating a fish the other day and he was eyeing the bag for several minutes before leaving it alone.

My guess is, given their adult size, at 4-6 inches they are still just babies. He'll probably change as he matures. But I have a philosophy about cichlids regarding their 'agression'. I may be wrong about it, but my fish live in total harmony. Even when the dovii/Jag spawned I had zero aggression problems.

This umbee I have is a real smart fish. I am excited to see what becomes of it.
Click to expand...

Trust me , your umbee is not wild caught. I was interested in buying a wild umbee from absolutly fish but after I caught the guy red handed in a lie to me I never went back.

As for umbees all being mean , well I owned approx 20 different umbees and all of them were very aggressive.
 
Great thread I never kept Umbee's because of how rare they are here and because of their size in relation to the aggressive behavior people attribute to them. But something to look for in the future.

Either way I will follow this thread and put in any useful research.

BigUmbeeFan can we see some photos? :)
 
My male is by far themost aggressive fish i have ever had. At 6 inches he would attack my 12 inch male jaguar cichlid at which time i moved my umbees but on that note given a large enough setup i could see them being kept with larger peaceful species aswell. They are very similar to red devils just better equiped to kill. Mine are alone in a 240 gallon tank but are so active it seems full so i keep them alone
 
Argggh. I've been trying all methods to get them to eat pellets and they just ignore them. It's been almost 3 weeks and they've eaten like 2 cubes of bloodworm and that's it. So frustrating.
 
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