Let's see those Paratilapia: largespot & smallspot!
- Thread starter WckedMidas
- Start date
I HAD A SMALL SPOT IT WAS REAL SWEAT BLACK WITH LITTLE BLUE SPOTS. BUT IT WAS ALLWAYS SO TIMID. IT DIED JUST YESTERDAY NIGHT. THAT SUCKED!
I only have 1 Polleni but here he is. This is from when i frist brought him home about 3 weeks ago he's a lil bigger now.
Any temperment differences between Paratilapia polleni small spot and the large spotted bleekeri?
There's a few web articles I've found, but I currently dont have access to any books or people who've kept polleni.
Those who've kept these for extented period, can you throw your two-cents in and fill me in on some "normal behaviors".
There's a few web articles I've found, but I currently dont have access to any books or people who've kept polleni.
Those who've kept these for extented period, can you throw your two-cents in and fill me in on some "normal behaviors".
I have an 11-12" Bleekeri, it is an incredibly beautiful fish. Much nicer than large Polleni's IME. It is extremely aggressive at feeding time. I have pretty good reason to believe that this fish came from the wild. First off the LFS got him at a large size which is unusual for them. He went on a hunger strike for 2 months after I brought him home and came down with a massive case of ich. After much effort I finally got him to take earthworms and now he loves them, but to this day it is pretty much all he will even consider eating. I have had him for over a year and he has grown and become an even nicer looking fish. Although he is housed alone he doesn't seem to show any aggression towards small fish. I have tried feeders a couple of times in the past year, all of which lived for months in the tank with him. This made me wonder if they eat many fish in the wild, and do to the lack of aggression I decided to try adding another fish. The store I work at had a 4" T. Buttikoferi that I picked up for $6. I figured the size difference and his tollerence of smaller fish may help this work. The Butti has been in with him for a week and is becoming bold enough to come out into the open water. The Bleekeri followed him around for a couple minutes but seems to not care about the other fish.
You can tell the Butti is really freaked out but is becoming more comfortable already, but can you blame him?
You can tell the Butti is really freaked out but is becoming more comfortable already, but can you blame him?mine had some blue spots on it and it was a small spot, it was too timid! its dead now it was killed by my butti!
Brought my T. polleni home when it was around 1.5". Kept it alone in qt and to see what kinds of behaviors it displayed. I had to research alot, since the store (good local lfs) sold it as a "spangled cichild, or maybe a sev" went back to ask more knowledgeable manager--said "polanyi" from a breeder in Florida. I knew it wasn't a sev, but obviously an interesting cichlid. Quickly discovered it was a T. polleni, and I was stoked!! I like having unusual things in my life.
As it grew I observed the HUGE mouth on it, compared to my mbuna and peacocks. Comparable only to the Ghost. Shifted it to a 10g, still alone--if it has a maw that big, it can eat others. However, it has always been skittish, and has taken a while to get used to and trust me.
When I switched my tanks around to accomodate planned growth last week, I put it in with a same-sized Turq Sev (@5") and 6" Ghost, and a few cories (the 2 emeralds seem ideal).
"The Black" gets run off by the Sev and the Ghost, and just shows average interest in the cories. Loves bloodworms, couple diff. kinds of sinking granules, and some of the floating pellets, as well as Omega One flakes. Not a picky eater, even when alone.
Just waiting to figure out gender, and get it to show black more. Otherwise, I'd share pix. It's mostly sandy colored majority of the day.
This is a shot (very poor) of soon after he came home--poor scared tattered little thing. . .sorry it's so bad. . . esp for being an artist--but photography has never been my strong point.
As it grew I observed the HUGE mouth on it, compared to my mbuna and peacocks. Comparable only to the Ghost. Shifted it to a 10g, still alone--if it has a maw that big, it can eat others. However, it has always been skittish, and has taken a while to get used to and trust me.
When I switched my tanks around to accomodate planned growth last week, I put it in with a same-sized Turq Sev (@5") and 6" Ghost, and a few cories (the 2 emeralds seem ideal).
"The Black" gets run off by the Sev and the Ghost, and just shows average interest in the cories. Loves bloodworms, couple diff. kinds of sinking granules, and some of the floating pellets, as well as Omega One flakes. Not a picky eater, even when alone.
Just waiting to figure out gender, and get it to show black more. Otherwise, I'd share pix. It's mostly sandy colored majority of the day.
This is a shot (very poor) of soon after he came home--poor scared tattered little thing. . .sorry it's so bad. . . esp for being an artist--but photography has never been my strong point.
Wish I had a camera to get mine in color, I lost most of my pics but I got a few when I first got them home - not much color though because they were really stressed. They are bleekeri (yes they are bleekeri there spots are much bigger then polleni even if you cant tell in the pics and they are not uniformed like pollenis are) I love them cuse they are heavily spotted =) I had one male and I have one female, but sold the male becuase he was to agressive and killed everything else. I still have the female and she is BEAUTIFUL very velvety black with nice blueish spots. If I can get a digi came I try to take new pics. Here are the old ones:
heres mine, 6" i thought it was a bleekri but a freind noted that it was a polleni, his name's Bruce.
