About a year ago I got back into fishkeeping after a little hiatus. I recently bought a 320gallon tank 8'x32"x2' which is now almost set up, still working on plumbing it. My plan was to transfer some moba frontosa from a 125 I have into it along with some other tangs. While fronts are probably my favorite fish looks wise, mine lack personality and are skittish. This has been my experience in the past especially with wild caught individuals (though these are f1s)but I couldn't resist. Anyways this leads me to my question. I really love big aggressive fish and they way they "interact" with you. I have never owned an umbee, but really have an itch to get one. The thing is I don't want a big tank with one fish. So my options to me at least are keep the fronts or set up a CA theme tank with an umbee as the centerpiece. However is this feasible or is the 320 just not big enough to house a few other cichlids long term with an umbee? Thanks for any input, especially those with first hand experience.
Umbee or not?
- Thread starter axs377
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As with other cichlids, it might depend on the individuals you keep. If you want to start with small fish (umbees and others) I can tell you that there are a TON of umbees ("blue" and "black") available at Segrest Farms. Have your LFS order whichever you want. Retail shouldn't be more than $20 for either color IMO. I know that Petco and the vendor Bluegrasscichlids on here tend to order from them also if your LFS doesn't.
I have a 360 gallon tank with a female Umbee about 5", 2 Festae male about 8" female about 5", and male 7" and 5" female Atromaculatum. The Umbee is very aggressive, towards all of them. Umbee is my favorite cichlid, I probably should get rid of the Umbee, but I really like Umbee. They all grew up together at about 2" but the Umbee is in charge. I would really be in trouble if it was a male Umbee.
So in my opinion, unless you are going to try to have a pair of Umbees only, I don't think it will work long term... I am probably going to have to make that decision at some point. The Umbee is not to the point where he is killing them, but there is no harmony in the tank...
So in my opinion, unless you are going to try to have a pair of Umbees only, I don't think it will work long term... I am probably going to have to make that decision at some point. The Umbee is not to the point where he is killing them, but there is no harmony in the tank...
Get a Umbee you will forget about those Fronts very fast 
Is the tank 32 wide or tall?
Thing I have found IME having a few different size Umbee is when they are when in there prime or medium stage they can be pretty nasty and want to dominate. Once larger 14 and on they tend to cool down as long as the other fish arnt dominant or aggressive and you could put other fish. My last pair I had in a 220 wide and male was 19 inch. Female was about 12 inch and had other CA/SA in with them. Honestly my female was more of the sniper.
Is the tank 32 wide or tall?
Thing I have found IME having a few different size Umbee is when they are when in there prime or medium stage they can be pretty nasty and want to dominate. Once larger 14 and on they tend to cool down as long as the other fish arnt dominant or aggressive and you could put other fish. My last pair I had in a 220 wide and male was 19 inch. Female was about 12 inch and had other CA/SA in with them. Honestly my female was more of the sniper.
Lol, yeah this is my second round with the fronts. First time was wild caught mobas, this time f1s, because the cheapest wild caught I could find were 120 ea...I've had mpimbwe before and they have great personality they just don't look as nice in my opinion.