Paratilapia polleni 75 gal tankmates?

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Albie1

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 4, 2009
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USA
Hello, This is my 1st post here and I see most folks on here have big tanks. Beautiful tanks I should add! Right now I'm only dealing with a 75 gal. (48" long). I just got a beautiful P. polleni that is about 4". I plan on making this tank his/hers but do not want just the one fish. I currently have:
4 synodontis (one 6" angelicus, 3 small flavitaeniatus)
1 school of lemon tetras (I know, they have not been eaten yet and I'll take them out soon)
3 Emperor tetras (also have to go soon I assume)
1 Red tailed shark
I'm really not attached to anything I currently have, but would like to keep the cats. So the question, what would you suggest for tankmates long term? I don't need or want to try another big cichlid. I'd rather go with a schooling fish or a couple of smaller cichlids that will work. Victorians or Jeweles have been suggested to me as possibilities. I really like the look of both of those but have no experience with jewels and just a bit with vics.
The tank is set up with fine gravel substrate, driftwood, live plants and a small amount of smooth river rocks. I'd like to get it set up with a mix that will work long term and I'm not crazy about aggression (got rid of Mbuna several years ago). Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
 
it will probably get along with the cats, for example, mine doesn't seem to mind bottom fish too much, although doesn't tolerate other cichlids well. If you do want to at least try cichlid tankmates, jewels are a good choice IMO since they are small, cheap, and aggressive enough to stand up for themselves.
 
Thanks - Any thoughts on schooling fish suitable for a 75 gal. that will not be eaten. Right now the fish is small enough where it is not even eating the lemon tetras, but I' know that will change so I'm removing them soon.
 
since the polleni is still small, barbs and large tetras might be ok...my polleni has never tried to eat fish that were much smaller, which even included Neolamp. multifasciatus for 3 days once.
 
Thanks. Back to trying cichlids as tankmates....What do you all think about Salvini or Firemouth? I would go with small ones and let them grow up together with the pollini. Not sure how many of each. So the list would be:
1 Paratilapia pollini
3 synodontis flav.
1 red tailed shark (may move this)
? salvini
or
? firemouth
small school congo tetra or rainbowfish
 
salvini sounds good to me, because they are smaller but very aggressive so they can more than hold their own.
 
iI've successfully kept my polleni with a large group of mixed africans for about 4 years. There are a lot of rock structures in my 90 gallon and constant spawning taking place. The Polleni is by far the largest fish in the tank. He's never bothered any of the 30+ africans in there. The africans keep eachother in check and the weak get picked off every now and then. At any given time I have many fry under an inch in the tank...they grow up, older fish get picked off, polleni is happy as a clam.
 
Thanks for the replies. Interesting info. Since my last post the Polleni has taken to eating 1 lemon tetra per night (I did not move them because I couldn't catch them and did not want to tear the tank apart). There are 3 left now.
Maduro - Amazing that yours did not eat fry!
C/A - I did go with 1 Salvini and several Firemouths, all smaller than the polleni.
The polleni in question has never eaten any flake or pellets since I have had it. It went crazy for bloodworms the one time I fed them and has eaten quite a few tetras. It's a bit discouraging that it will not eat flake and pellets. Any suggestions? Thanks!
 
He totally ignores all africans large and small.......I should shoot a video soon..it's pretty cool.
 
It's always hard to tell what fish will do well with a big cichlid. It depends more on the cichlid's personality than anything else. My Polleni is really aggressive. I had to move him out of my 125 last year because he was laying a beat down on my Texas cichlid and chasing a lot of the others. It's interesting though that Polleni do seem to do better with smaller fish. Right now, mine lives with a Festae that's about half his size. He'll nip on occasion and the Festae has to stay clear of him, but otherwise they're doing well together - for a good six to seven months now.
 
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