Need Umbie advise
- Thread starter Cakilla
- Start date
seems like you have a good handle on it and know what to expect, im definitely jealous, my dream is to be able to have a tank that big and dedicate it to a nice pair of umbees but for now im stuck with my good ol' 120 lol (im still in college as well) they are definitely a favorite of mine, i would def put in some silver dollars though as dithers and to add some movement to the tank especially for when they are little, tank would be pretty boring with just a coupl tiny fish in it lol, if i were you i would definitely try to get some of the different varieties of silver dollars, like the barred and spotted, though i think the spotted stay to small but the barred ones are SWEET 
Cakilla;4188198; said:
I have kept my umbees with other south american cichlids up until my umbees were about 8". I had my umbees since my male was about 3". He was placed in a cichlid tank with fishes 5"+. My male was super agressive and no one picked on him even when he was one of the smaller fishes in the tank. Once he got up to 8", he started picking on the other fishes and had to divide him from the other tank mates. I sold the other fishes and ended up with 2 umbees males (not knowing). These two were divided and tried to kill each other daily attacking the divider. I found a proven female and finally got lucky enough to start breeding them.
The most dominant will try and kill off the others..keep a divider handy. In terms of dither, I would not even bother. They will get destroyed in your umbee tank.
From what I heard and read, if you kept an umbee by itself with different cichlids, they tend to be less aggressive. I am not sure as to why, that's what I read somewhere. I couldn't test it out since I always had 2 umbees in my tank.
Also, watch your finger. My umbee bit my finger but I luckily removed my hand quickly enough before he could get another bite in.
Males grow much quicker than females. Currently my male is 15" and my female is 8". Again, keep a close watch and keep that divider close to the tank.
Good luck on your umbee project and always keep an eye on them especially if you plan to place them in a species tank. Umbees are truly beautiful fishes and definitely worth the effort.
