There are at least 5 species of Paratilapia, over the years I have kept 3 of the species.
One was the Paratilapia "small spot" (below)
The males sport a prominent cranial profile, and will be larger than females
He is not full grown in the left pick, and probably grew another 3 or 4 inches.
Left shot below is a female, the male is with a couple females in the shot on the right
Another species I've kept is Paratilapia andapa, below
Both species outgrew my 6 ft tanks, and I made a mistake of thinking they might tolerate each other in 400 gallons, but that didn't work out, they killed each other, even in that 400 gal amount of water volume.
I found they are best kept with cichlids that don't look like them.
If Kept with cichlids with similar iridescent spots , such as any from the Herichthys carpintus group, JDs, of GTs, it usually ends up with fighting, and sometimes death.
Cichlids I found they could share a large tank with (6ft or more) were other Madagascar cichlids in the genus Paretroplus.
These Paretroplines have very different body, fin, and mouth shape, indicating they don't compete for similar resources
It is possible, to keep them with some species of Central American cichlids, as long as colors and mouth shape is different, and you have proper large enough tank size (well over 100 gallons). To me an oscar with its similar black coloration and similar mouth shape, would seem to be a competitor, and maybe problematic.
Above they shared a very large tank with the vegetarian Central American Cincelichthys bocourti, and madagascan Paretroplus maculatus.
T
…due to the limited info on these species I wanted to ask a cpl of questions from experts here
