My Paratilapia Bleekeri is extremely shy, any advice on how I can make it overcome "his shyness"?

Noch86

Feeder Fish
Jul 29, 2016
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Me and two of my friends started to do some research(which took more time than expected) in order to contact a respectable good and honest breeder to purchase 2 REAL BLEEKERI females and 1 male. One of my friends has a "humungus Behemoth Fish tank" (2000 gallons). We had this noble idea of trying to reproduce them and if we success, we will try to contact the corresponding environmental authorities of Madagascar so that we can send them back to their original homeland (I know it sounds a little wacky but we wanna help to preserve them since as many of you know they are at the verge of extinction).
4 days ago they finally arrived! 3 awesome Bleekeri healthy adults of good size(obviously not fully grown, but about 7 inches) great shape and awesome color. While they get use to their new homeland each of us took one home. I got the male, where a 100 gallon tank fully aquascaped with hiding spots, light system, plants, sand, rocks, filtration system and top water parameters waited for him.
He is now doing great! He eats, swims, shows his beautiful color and spots/markins, et cetera...until I stay infront of the tank more time than what I believe he considers "neccesary" (the time it takes me to feed him). If I stay infront of his tank for more than 10 monutes he just kind of get under a log and lays down..like a dying fish...so I have to leave the room after a while he is swiming, eating and doing his stuff. Its kind of funny but I am afraid that when the time comes for him to move at my friend's huge tank with one of the females he could be so shy that the female might kill him or best case scenario..nothing will happen.
Please any advice based on a similar experience is appreciated.
Thanks!
 

the animal guy

Arapaima
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they want a lot of plants and not be out wide open
 
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Noch86

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Jul 29, 2016
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Thanks!
i planted like 7 different plants at the tank while I was setting it up... guess I'll try planting even more!
Thanks
 

duanes

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When Paratilapia put s cluster of eggs down, very often they will be placed in stands of rigid plants or roots. I like to use emergent stands of papyrus in their tanks.
For breeding purposes, I find it is best to put a group of young together in order to allow them to mature and select their own partners. Males can be very hard of non-receptive females, and spawning partners go thru rigorous ritual before being selected.
The first time mine spawned back in the 90s, I had 5, and the male killed all but his chosen partner.
And just a heads up, the species name "bleekeri" is considered invalid, and cichlids in the genus Paratilapia have been broken down into at least 5 separate species (maybe more)
[/URL[URL=http://s70.photobucket.com/user/dstuer/media/Paratilapia/new%20tank/016_zpsb77b2a3c.jpg.html]
Above are Paratilapia polleni (small spot)
below P sp Andapa
[/URL]
 

duanes

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And just to clarify the name confusion, the name polleni was first used in a description from the year 1868, the name bleekeri did not emerge until 1882. The older name with scientific description is considered valid, and takes precedence.
Whether to not the two scientists were describing the same fish, is the real question.
And LFSs are often notoriously ignorant of scientific data, so just because you buy a fish as one name, does not make it so.
 

Noch86

Feeder Fish
Jul 29, 2016
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Thanks! Yes those below are the ones we acquire "Andapa".
And yeah we did the research about the risky and complex mating ritual. Thats why we will try it in such a huge tank.
Our approach consists in putting the females first and give them the benefit of becoming the "owners" of the territory. After one month I will introduce my hopefully by then not so shy guy...So that he will be the "not so dominant" newbie looking for the girls that by the time should be the "bosses" of the place. hopefully selecting the one he likes.
If succeded part 3 of the "operation" will be executed...since these guys are well known cannibals with their fry....

Back to my actual main concern; thats why I'm trying to help him overcome his extremely shyness...we need him just "normal shy" hehe.

Thanks for all the the tips given so far!
 

Noch86

Feeder Fish
Jul 29, 2016
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Duanes, with this post reply I'm not trying to contradict you or anything..please dont get me wrong I'm really thankful for your advice. I just want to let you know that we dont call these fishes "bleekeri" because we saw them at some lfs (from where we didn't purchase these guys).

As I Mentioned at the beggining it took us more time and effort than expected to get this specimens doing the research and finding the right privider.

"iucnredlist "

Seriously scientific based sites like this one made us call them Bleekeri. But again please dont get me wrong. I not trying to start a whole drama or silly discussion with any of you guys.
I have no issue at all to start calling them Andapa :)
I'm just looking for advice; so far I'm really thankful with all of you guys.
 
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Hendre

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Very sensible. I wish i had a bigger tank to try and breed my african knives and expand my collection. I wish you best of luck!
 
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