Can I keep an Oscar with a Bleekeri

[duanes]

I have found Paratilapia polleni (the name Bleekeri is not valid although most LFSs are clueless about such things) don't like other blue spangled fish, so the EBJD may be iffy, even in 150 gal stock tank, although at 2" they may set up territories that don't overlap.
I put 2 Paratilapia in a 400 gal pool hoping they might divide it in two, but the dominant one would search out the other, and quickly killed it. They were about 10" each at the time.


The Paratilapia "andapa", was the dominant one

 

[duanes]

Here's why the name confusion.
In 1868, Bleeker described this Paratilapia cichlid from Madagascar as P polleni.
Because of the slow communication at the time, two or more scientists (often from different countries) might believe they were first discovering a species, and each descibe the same fish.
Boulenger described the same fish (probably, thinking it had not been described before)
as Paratilapia bleekeri, 1915.
When a fish is first described (scientifically) the oldest name takes precedence, is considered valid, in this case bleekeri, described 40 some years later.