Topic: Future Umbee King

[roliva]

Haven't seen an umbee thread in awhile.  Here's some shots of my latest juvenile.  He's a little over 4" TL, still small.  Raised him since 1.5".  One male out of 18 total within the last two years!!  Enjoy.

[stilllearnin]

Looks good 

Actually does look like a male too,most forum posts lately you look at and just think female right away.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you it doesn't use umbee magic to turn out female 

[roliva]

Thanks!!  I'll need all the magic I can get .  Out of the tons of umbees posted, including mine , I have not seen such nice anal and dorsal extensions or color above the lateral line such as this one (at such an early age).

[tracey]

It really does look like a male.  Those fin extensions and the heavy speckling around the face and gillplate....... crossing fingers and toes for you 

[Gerry]

NICE  fish

[Luke]

very nice  

[fnesr]

 

[Maddy mad man]

Those are great pictures - think i might give my feeble FOTM attempt a miss this month!

[roliva]

Thanks all for the compliments.  Here's some shots of his tankmates.  A smaller sibling and a red devil (who are always getting into standoffs).  He always breaks up the fight though.

[Maddy mad man]

What size tank do you hve?

I suspect that you might need to seperate those fish at some point

[roliva]

 They're in a 360 gal - 8'X3'X2'

[Maddy mad man]

Wow!  Can we see a pic of that?

[roliva]

Wow!  Can we see a pic of that?

Sure, I built it myself last May.  Here is an old recap of what I had documented back in Dec, 2005:

For the plywood tank itself, I just followed the plans from the garf website.
As you can see from the cost below, it is well worth it for a tank this size (8X3X2, LXWXH). However, sizes smaller than 8X3, the cost of a regular glass tank starts becoming comparable to the price of this waterproofing material. I just followed the instructions for waterproofing in my previous post. I applied the material with high quality paint brushes. If I were to do it again, using a high quality roller would have saved alot of time.

When the waterproof material cured, it left an oily residue. The reps at Sanitred told me to clean it out with Tide detergent. It helped, but a tank this size still took about 4 rinses, filling it up halfway each time (to try and save water!!).
The waterproofing consisted of 4 steps as shown below. The result is some sort of high tech rubber/polymer that seems very durable yet flexible. I placed a thin sheet of plexiglass on the bottom before I put the rocks in to be cautious. I'm sure that if I put gravel or sand in first, then rocks on top, then there should be no problems. But I have no substrate. I am pleased with the result.
Also, I have a common pleco in there since May that went from 2" to 12". There seems to be a whitish growth on the surface from time to time, that may be some type of plant life because the pleco always eats it and keeps it under control. I was watchful at first to see if the pleco would damage the waterproofing material but never had a problem with the pleco eating through this rubber or no penetration that I can see at the present time. I am also raising 6 juvenile umbees (from Jeff Rapps) which happens to be my 3rd batch by the way. The first two batches turned out all females!! I'm sure everyone knows how hard it is to actually get a male.

360 Gallon Project: Costs:

5 lb. Box 2.5? exterior screws : $13.99
5 lb. Box 2? exterior screws : $13.99
2 - Liquid Nails : $6.00
6 ? 2X4X12 : $4.78 each (for stand)
5 ? 2X4X8 : $2.49 each (for stand)
3 ? 1X4X12 : $5.71 each
2 ? 1X6X12 : $8.23 each
3 ? 0.75? Oak Plywood : $38.66 each
2 Gallons LRB : $64.75 per gallon
2 Quarts TAV : $18.50 per quart
1-Gallon Permaflex (Black) : $70.75
1 LRB Mini-Vial : $0.80
6 Oz. Vial Permaflex Accelerator : $7.00
5 Paint brushes : $30.00
93"X 22" glass front (0.5" thick) : $184.00

So the materials cost me roughly $650-$700 (and alot of labor) compared to an 8X3X2 at glasscages for I believe was about $1100 (this size has to be custom made).






































And here it is today.  I took out most of the rocks and decor because maintenance to get under and around the rocks took major time!!

[JC]

Ok for a minute I was wondering why the thread was stickied.. now I know... THIS IS FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!   Wooot Great stuff man        Love that fish and dang... that tank looks good 

[fnesr]

Nice work, awesome