Polleni VS. Bleekeri

[duanes]

One thing I would add, it is not a good idea to house more than one species of Paratilapia per tank.
Paratilapia are fine with other Malagasy genera, others like Paretroplus and Ptychochromis seem to be ignored.
Back in 2014 I tried to keep the two from my photos above together for a moment in a 400 gal pool, but even in that size enclosure intra-genus aggression was relentless and lethal.

Yet in tanks as small as 150 gal, the Paratilapia ignored Paretroplus. (The two above were @ 10"-12" each at the time)

One other caveat, I would not keep Paratilapia with other similarly colored (iridescently spotted) cichlids, such as Rocio (JDs)
or Herichthys (Texas cichlid complex), as they would probably be seen as conspecific competition.

 

[Cfremont23]

One thing I would add, it is not a good idea to house more than one species of Paratilapia per tank.
Paratilapia are fine with other Malagasy genera, others like Paretroplus and Ptychochromis seem to be ignored.
Back in 2014 I tried to keep the two from my photos above together for a moment in a 400 gal pool, but even in that size enclosure intra-genus aggression was relentless and lethal.
View attachment 1433799
Yet in tanks as small as 150 gal, the Paratilapia ignored Paretroplus. (The two above were @ 10"-12" each at the time)
View attachment 1433800
One other caveat, I would not keep Paratilapia with other similarly colored (iridescently spotted) cichlids, such as Rocio (JDs)
or Herichthys (Texas cichlid complex), as they would probably be seen as conspecific competition.

For now it is kept with an oscar, 3 blood parrots, a frontosa, a convict , and 2 bichirs and 1 eel. So I think I'll be good until i get a bigger tank this summer.

 

[Joshuakahan]

Hello cichlid enthusiasts, I have had my paratilapia polleni for about 9 months and I had completely forgot that there is a paratilapia bleekeri and I was wondering if anyone knew the difference.

I had a bleekeri and when I saw polleni at different lfs, the only difference I saw was the spangles were much bigger on the bleekeri.

 

[Maduro]

here is Paratilpia andapa.
View attachment 1433725
now P. polleni sp small spot
View attachment 1433726
Obviously quite different

What was your staple food for these guys? I have a very slow grower n my hands.

 

[duanes]

I used a Spirulina based pellet like Algaemax.
They are basically insectivores in nature, so anytime I caught anything from grasshoppers, to grubs to flies they were dropped in.
Although they are not the fastest growers, to me, to me growth often has more to do with frequency and volume of water changes and keeping nitrate low, than anything else. I tend to do 30-40% of the tanks water every other day.

 

[Brazzen1]

One thing I would add, it is not a good idea to house more than one species of Paratilapia per tank.
Paratilapia are fine with other Malagasy genera, others like Paretroplus and Ptychochromis seem to be ignored.
Back in 2014 I tried to keep the two from my photos above together for a moment in a 400 gal pool, but even in that size enclosure intra-genus aggression was relentless and lethal.
View attachment 1433799
Yet in tanks as small as 150 gal, the Paratilapia ignored Paretroplus. (The two above were @ 10"-12" each at the time)
View attachment 1433800
One other caveat, I would not keep Paratilapia with other similarly colored (iridescently spotted) cichlids, such as Rocio (JDs)
or Herichthys (Texas cichlid complex), as they would probably be seen as conspecific competition.

I know, old thread but this was exactly what I was planning.