Umbee / Argentea / Polleni - Breeding Group in one Tank - Thoughts?

[HELIOX]

Hi MFK

Im stocking up a new big tank in a few months.... around 60k system.

Im thinking of putting a bunch of umbees / argentea / polleni .... lets say around 50pc each....

The idea is for the cichlids to just breed... and add some color to the tank...

I will probably have some large fishes like arapaimas, pacus, pangasius, tsn, etc...

Do you think the cichlids would breed? Anybody here have experience with large breeding groups of cichlids...

I would prefer that they breed out of control, this way the big fishes can have some occasional snacks.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[Rocksor]

thebiggerthebetter

 

[robmcd]

60K isn't a tank, it's a pool. Or a pond. How about just keeping it to cichlids from the same continent? Say, some umbees and some festae? Maybe some large crenicichla? A ''tank'' of that size would be an awesome opportunity to get some seldom seen species of pike cichlids to spawn in captivity. Marmorata, lenticulata, vittata, zebrina?

 

[Polypterus_36]

So I'm assuming you are going for something like this?

Any sort of cichlid group would most likely spawn in a 60k gallon system if it is properly maintained.
I also agree with robmcd
I would try to keep it as a biotope, and I would also try to spawn some hard to breed cichlids.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Hi Heliox, good to see you are active in the hobby. Long time no see or hear. How are your TSNs and piraibas?

IDK about the cichlids you mention but this could be my cichlid inexperience. From the very little I've heard or read it seems people usually use African cichlids, convicts, tilapia(?), etc. that is smaller and perhaps more frequent and prolific spawners.

Arapaimag aka Michael Bryce had this kind of scheme going in his 52K tank and for it he used lots of rocks and wood for the cichlids and the young to be able to hide and get away from the large predators.

 

[HELIOX]

Thanks for the great ideas. I will look into adding one species of crenicichla... atabapos can add nicely to the palette.
I will try to keep the genuses relatively different to avoid possible hybrids. Maybe limiting one species per genus and also not putting fish that have history of hybridization.

Its a good strategy to create an area of "denied accessibility" for fish in excess of a certain size using decor. This should be possible since the depth is close to 5m and part of the floor area can be designed to have limited access. This may also allow the possibility to put some other fish types in the 1 foot range aside from cichlids.

Possibly choosing fish that prefer to live at different zones.

Im also thinking of stocking the fishes that have intention to breed first.... this can help them set up a beach-head and hopefully they can get acquainted to the topography to understand escape routes. I do have an impression that what Cichlids lack in size they make up in brains.

Hi Big !!! Hope all your tanks are well.... I frequent your youtube vids.

Yeah my project was somewhat delayed due to the pandemic, but things are rolling along now. I actually had to give away my suri piraibas and my tsn types since they were growing too fast and the tank was not gonna make it in time. But I did replace the tsn again last year with a new batch of pseudoplatystoma tigrinum. I will post these in the catfish lounge... they are exhibiting very clear differences from the farm bred stuff. Very cool, and I highly recommend them.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Thank you for this!

May be helpful to you, may be not, but I believe our Arapaima at 5.5 feet have damaged their 4500 gal tank, so it's been leaking for a year or longer now. A very strong built fiberglass tank but the bottom seam split for no good reason. I may be wrong but I feel this is why - they hit the walls once in a while with a loud thump.

So just a word of caution that arapaima have bulletproof, steel heads and a huge weight and burst speed and when preying on your cichlids what not, perhaps especially at night, they will likely put to the test the structural strength of your 60K enclosure. You better make sure it can handle a direct hit by a 200+ pound missile-shaped fish with a steel arrow head.

Not to mention they will try to jump out, but you probably know and have arranged for that.

 

[HELIOX]

Thank you for this!

May be helpful to you, may be not, but I believe our Arapaima at 5.5 feet have damaged their 4500 gal tank, so it's been leaking for a year or longer now. A very strong built fiberglass tank but the bottom seam split for no good reason. I may be wrong but I feel this is why - they hit the walls once in a while with a loud thump.

So just a word of caution that arapaima have bulletproof, steel heads and a huge weight and burst speed and when preying on your cichlids what not, perhaps especially at night, they will likely put to the test the structural strength of your 60K enclosure. You better make sure it can handle a direct hit by a 200+ pound missile-shaped fish with a steel arrow head.

Not to mention they will try to jump out, but you probably know and have arranged for that.

Hi Big, great advise for sure.

The set up is similar to a public display, with concrete sides and an acrylic panel.
The tank walls are concrete 5000 psi rated. The acrylic viewing panel is 200mm in thickness.

I do have a thin fiberglass coating probably a meager 5mm just for added waterproofing. And I do think this might get damaged from the situation that you described....but that is probably okay since it can still be repaired.

Do you think they still behave this way when they get very big? I have seen some large proven breeder arapaimas in a friend's theme park... and they do seem kind of sluggish... his are over 2m. I am hoping that they become slower as they get old.

But yes the smaller ones are very agile and jumpy. There was a time that we had to seine some sub adult progeny from a mud pond to test a couple of them with different recipes... those were seriously strong fish.

Taste was not pleasant and tasted soilish..... probably because they were not from a concrete pond with clean water.

Also did you get to repair your fiberglass tank?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Do you think they still behave this way when they get very big?
***IDK. It sounds like you may know more. Ours were cramped too. Larger enclosure should help.

Also did you get to repair your fiberglass tank?
***Not yet. I've not finished building the 10K gal full acrylic tank to rehome everyone from the 4500 gal tank for the repairs. So it slowly leaks, tolerable for now, perhaps a few dozen of gallons a day...