YAh the spots are bigger and the dace is different I have a small polleni 2-2.5inchhow long does it take for the spots to come inIts not looking anything close to my two pollenis. But that might be the angle of the photo.
View attachment 1366113
Face*YAh the spots are bigger and the dace is different I have a small polleni 2-2.5inchhow long does it take for the spots to come in
Mine looks like one on the bottom but longer and darkerThere are at least a half dozen species of Paratilapia, that are commonly called starry night cichlids, so the OPs is one, but as to what species it is may be the question, and almost impossible to tell without location provenance.
Here are two I had, to me they are quite different from each other.
First ....Paratilapia species "small spot" male.
Now... Paratilapia species "Anadapa"
many are separated by the local of madagascar
Small spot northeast, or large spot west coast, or Ambalavao.
i dont really have an answer but at my LFS i noticed all the baby starry nights had noticeable differences in their faces having to do mostly with the size/placement of the eyes. the pattern differences between specimens is largely contributed to sex. you most likely have a polleni and not a bleekeri. i have a starry night cichlid that was sold to me under the name bleekeri i assume its a polleni and was just traded under the name bleekeri. i will say your starry night cichlids head looks quite different having eyes placed more in the middle of the face instead of towards the top and looking smaller than usual.