theoretical Umbee question.

[jgentry]

I was thinking maybe they threw a few hundred in there to begin with, and the RTC just hasn't gotten around to finishing the rest...

300 guppies probably couldn't even feed a 4 footer for 12hrs. Something that big would need a couple of whole tilapia every over day. I doubt it would even bother trying to eat them unless they swim in it's mouth. A baby one would put a hurting on the guppies though.

 

[David R]

^ bang on. In the wild big fish don't bother eating tiny fish because the energy expended isn't worth the energy they will gain from eating the tiny fish. It was explained better in the arowana forum when someone asked about keeping neons with a large aro. I don't see why a large (14"+) well fed umbie would bother chasing a school of neons, maybe you'd need to provide some plastic plants for cover for the neons though.

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

I was just looking on another site dealing in large predatory fish and found a tank with a black rhom piranha and small community fish working just great. by small community fish i mean neons, platies etc. i have also noticed my lfs has their huge RTC in with guppies and there is surviving fry.
which brought me to an idea to get the wife to allow an umbee and a huge tank for it.
could a large 12"+ umbee be housed with small community fish successfully??

I'd like to know how your LFS has the RTC with Guppies. From what I hear, keeping Piranha with community fish isn't too difficult provided you keep the P's fed.

Are you talking about Twiglet (RTC) down at Swallow Aquatics in Harling? If so i asked them about that as i had a bit of a double take on it and they said the Guppies get sucked through the pipes from their display tanks when they have fry and end up in there. They're far to small for Twiglet to even bother trying to eat so they survive fine with him.

The only small fish that survives with my large (12"+) catfish is an unwanted Red Tailed Black Shark that was put in a long time ago as a feeder. Everything else gets eaten no matter what the size.

 

[cichlid2006]

yeah Satan thats the place and fish. i wondered why the guppies were in there.