Oxquo Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Am I ever enjoying having predators again, unfortunately I only aquired two and they hate each other. The bigger one is about 3" and it was sooo cute the other night when he grabbed a full grown guppy male by the tail, swam to the corner and spit it out just to head first the guy as he turned around. At this point the tail was sticking out of his mouth slightly, did he hide then and finish his guppy? Nope, he began to pursue the second guppy, catching it 5 or 6 times by the tail while he still had the tail of the second one sticking out. I was killing myself laughing as he was killing them and laughing in an evil fish kinda laugh. As much as I enjoy them, I am looking forward to maybe getting the 8" pair that the old lady passed up on and throwing these guys in the pond for the summer. I need to hurry up now as I have just finished building the 230 gallon tank but need my new livingroom done to set it up. For now I have only a 55 gallon for each of them. Never really even considering a predator community before, what would you guys stock with them in an 8' x 2' x 2' tank? I have seen a community once with dovii, jags, red devils and midas, I still think the dovii would outgrow a few of those and maybe whoop them up good. I was wondering about an Umbi mix? Anyways, gotta say I love having these guys around, almost wishin I never gave my pike pair to Garhan now lol. I am even thinking of buying them little T-shirts that say " Got Guppy???" lol. Can't wait till they are bigger though, I already had a kid tell me that pirahna would eat him in seconds flat. I told him that he is welcome to put them in my tank for awhile, a very short while when my boy grow up. I still remember my first pike cichlids and the very same dare way back then, ahhh I miss the sound of a cichlid crunching on the hardened teeth of the big toothy tetra hahahha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reza Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 "Got Guppy????" Thanks, that made my day. -roll- ~Reza~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlidkid Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 hey sweet pickup, im gonna get a non breeding pair this weekend, Im hoping to do a 8'x3'x2.5' (lwh) im gonna put in my festae pair, jags, midas, gt, umbee and my dovii pair for as long as they are getting allong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nandopsis Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 A Dovii and Umbee tank would be sweet, but from what i hear you'll have problems one way or another when they reach about 6" to 8". Even in that size of tank. My bet is the Umbee will be more agro at that size. Rudy would be more capable to answer that though. He has kept both of those fish to a fairly large size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxquo Posted June 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 I'm thinking at 6-8" anything would be a bad combo. At first I thought about making a concrete tank out of cinder blocks around 800 gallons. From there I would opt to buy a bunch of old veterans, they seem to have a high tolerance since they are no longer spawning and territorial. The sad fact is that they have that high price tag for fish people turn over because they are unwanted. In the case of the old vets they need room more to move around then say territory but they still need alot of room. As for my young dovii, I wouldn't wan't anything to terrorise them such as an umbee so I am thinking maybe midas, dempseys and terrors are also cheap and should handle themselves well till the dovii are well settled. I guess it all leads back to the age old question, who grows faster??? I think jags are one of the fastest growing fish in the hobby and may get bigger, faster and then dominate the tank. Not that the dovii are slow growers but I think a little slower than Jags. As for Umbi's I am not sure on their growth rate, I would imagine pretty fast seeing their overall length versus lifespan.My best chance would likely be to move all fish into the big tank at the same time and hope for the best. Tonnes of logs, rocks and hollows. lot's of blackwater extract to keep them calm and sedate as much as they can be and hope for the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nandopsis Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 That sounds awesome. :drool: Again i have no personal experience, but i have heard that umbees grow fairly fasy untill they reach approx 6". Then they take for years to get to a monster size. I would imagine it would take awile because of their extra girth of their body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canucklehead Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 (edited) You could keep smaller less aggresive species with umbees and dovii, but anything that could challenge them is toast, my umbee destroyed a much larger motaguense but left a smaller rostratus completely alone. Umbees are very bulky and powerful, very heavy fish. I highly recomend them. I have heard of someone keeping breeding pairs of umbees and dovii in 700 gallon tank. Umbees actually grow pretty slow for there size, mines allmost 2 years old just over 12" Edited June 7, 2005 by canucklehead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudy Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 I completely agree with everything that canucklehead said about males of both fish. If they are more dominant, the challenging fish is dead regardless of what size tank. My dovii at 7 inches toasted a large and bulky 10 inch festae and then a 11 inch aggressive male bleekeri. Cichlidkid, I have said it before and I will say it again...it won't work so be prepared to lose one of the fish before you figure out that there is a problem. When I lost my festae it happened within seconds. Rare fish to grow out to be killed. He also had a bit of fun with a clarias cat that thought he could take a chunk out of the dovii. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlidkid Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 oops sorry I should have specified that is gonna be a growout (similar to dennis') too bad, Im not getting the dovii pair I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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