There's a whole discussion about it in 2014 when the scientific community made this decision that bleekeri can't be proven to exist in the hobby because there are no wild specimens in the original location it was discovered by Sauvage 1882. Hence their belief that it is extinct.
Id on paratilapia?
Someone posted that bleekeri have never existed in the aquarium trade. Is this true? and why? Also, I have a polleni, but picked up this guy a few weeks ago. Is this also a polleni? Thanks New Paratilapia ??? Paratilapia polleniwww.monsterfishkeepers.com
You will see web links that Paul Loiselle apologized (in 2011) for the confusion in papers he co-authored in the 1990s.
The aquaculture industry can name any breed of fish anything they want, like Texas cichlid or Strigata pike (which Warzel has already identified and continues to be misidentified by vendors and hobbyists). Some vendors have actually moved on from calling it bleekeri as the scientific name and put something like Bleekeri cichlid (Paratilapia polleni sp) or just big spot Polleni. I can't say if naming something Bleekeri makes the Starry Night cichld more expensive than Polleni or Big Spot andapa or small spot polleni.
I'm just pointing out the fact that many folks still believe that true bleekeri is purchasable from the hobby, when there's no way to prove it is. It's just like midevil vs red devil debate. If you can't prove a red devil's lineage, then you just have a midevil. So since you can't prove bleekeri's lineage, then you just have a polleni (with regards to scientific classification).
Understood, thank you for clarification.
