Starry Night Cichlid questions

[cali~budfish]

i know this thread is a little old but i have a bleekeri in my 210 and his tankmates are a gold flowerhorn, green terror, ebjd, rtc(soon to be removed), and one red jewel. the bleekeri is beautiful and i had never seen or heard of them until about 4 months ago. i saw him in the dreaded "show only" tank at my lfs. after some haggling with the owner i procured him for 35 dollars. so i've had him in the tank for 4 months now and he gets along great with everyone except the red jewel who ounce for ounce is the most agressive fish i've owned in a while. not mixing africans with central americans is just common no no fish retailers warn you about although i and many others have no problems with it. it's all about your set up and relieving stress in the aquarium. good luck with the bleekeri they are beautiful fish!

 

[Zoogrl29]

I tried putting mine in with kenyi and some cobalts and a large convict and he constantly fought with all of them (in a 120) . He tolerates the female I got for him and one female convict he loves for whatever reason. He's about 7 inches in an 75 now. He also spends most of his time in the cichlid Rock and seems to be nocturnal. When he was little (4 inches or so) I had him in with my "nice" fish (He was such a whimp when I first got him) and one night he started picking off all my green tetras (BIG ONES) and 7 turned into three overnight. It's a cool fish, but be prepared for him to be one of the only fish in the tank at some point (I really wish he liked his girlfriend!).

 

[duanes]

Even though this is an old thread, and so people don't get misinformation, there are many more than 2 species, at least 10, maybe more. And many of the LFS varieties may be hybrids, because when first imported, the illusion was, there was only 1 maybe 2.
I have kept at least 3 of the species.
They need lots of space, especially if you try to keep more than 1.
On my first attempt at keeping them, I had 4 in a 150 gal tank, the dominant male killed 2 once it hit maturity, and then the female he spawned with, when she wasn't ready to spawn again.
I find 500 gallons or more work fairly well, in keeping aggression to a minimum between them, although they do not seem to bother other species like they do each other.
Below two species, that show distinct differences
Paratilapia sp Andapa

Paratilapia polleni ( sp small spot)

Here in a video in a 150 gal tank, you can see the alpha attitude

 

[kewpiefishypewpie]

I was curious about what those plants are that you have in the 150? The ones with the really long stems? I love the look of them

 

[duanes]

The long stem plants are papyrus (AKA umbrella palm), they cannot be totally submerged, because they are considered a bog plant, although they also survive planted dry as house plants. New stems shoot up from the root ball, but only open after emerging from the waters surface. Leaves will droop, and if they hit water, new planets appear on the leaves. They are very prolific planted in water, and produced so many new plants, I had a hard time giving them away.
If you buy 1, you may soon have 20.
In the photo they were about 4'-5ft tall, I've seen them much taller in nature. They needed plenty of real sun light to live in my house.