My Umbee Growth journal
- Thread starter Covetous
- Start date
Man these guys are little hams, they constantly are begging for food. Even if their stomachs look like they're gonna explode they would eat if I let them. It's ridiculous, they like to stare at me when I sit on the couch. They come to side panel and fight over who is gonna get to sit there and stare at me. It's pretty comical.
Oh man, we are starting to get abit of color, when I feed them they all darken up now. Starting to actually look like little Gorillus Blue's all except one. One of them gets real light color almost yellowish. Like some females I've seen. Oh boy. What's the odds I got 5 males and one female.....I'll get pics of the color later tonight.
i didnt read every post so if this is redundant disregard...the rio mag is one of the most difficult fish for me to determine gender at young age. a sure tell sign is black upside down triangles under the eyes is female. 3"+ watch fish closely and when squaring off the females will show black maybe in dorsal fin or pectoral fins and or triangle under the eyes. if your fish is alone and doesnt get angry try holding a mirror to tank and fish may get upset then look for triangles. if you see them it is female if yyou dont see them it still is up for debate. my best female breeder out grew brothers and sisters and had nice spangling mashaAllaah so size isnt always failproof. i keep gorilus and rio mag and believe gorilus to be more aggressive towards their own kind. here is one of my pairs. male son of 'the general' on youtube. one of the pioneers, lol
Very cool pair man, Rio Mag's are awesome beautiful fish.
My little guys are "Andean" umbee's or "Rio Guatape" , aka Gorillus Blue's depending on which name you fancy. I understand that it's super hard to sex them small I'd say my largest is pushing 4-5 inches. With the smallest being about 2-1/2. And really no visible tells that I can see to differentiate sex. Unless I try to go by fin shape.
As I said above the only thing that makes me wonder is at feeding time when everyone darkens up only one stays light colored. Or dare I say even takes a yellowish tone. Where as the others darken up to the grey-blue of the Gorillus coloring. The weird thing being that the one that stays light or gets yellow is not the smallest or least Dominant.
It seems to me that when they get all aggitated with each other and square up my largest actually gets almost striped. Becomeing dark in the face and dark grey banding down the body.
I really am enjoying watching these little guys they give me something new everyday.
Currently they get NSL Cichlid, NSL hex shield, hikari cichlid, Southern Delight Grow, Southern Delight Color enhance, a mix of protein and spiritula flakes, gut loaded brine shrimp, black worms, and crickets. Not all at once 
but each day I pick one. I've been thinking about adding peas to the mix, do you feed actual vegetables like zucini and such? Or just the peas? What's a good way for these guys.
but each day I pick one. I've been thinking about adding peas to the mix, do you feed actual vegetables like zucini and such? Or just the peas? What's a good way for these guys.
most my fish eat peas but not my umbees. i get pellets with spirilina and they get that once a week. couple times a month i soak their food in cup of tank water that i dissolve some vitamins in...example human prenatal vits. i dont feed adults daily but i do make sure they get their fill when eating
Ah I got ya, that makes sense. I soak pellets and or the flakes in Vita-chem a couple times a week before I feed. So that should be pretty similar.
