Paratilapia polleni questions 4 the experienced

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Ogrim

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 2, 2010
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Australia
Hi,
I am new here, hello everyone!
Please do help, if you have experience with the particular species of tilapia below. I have 4 “Paratilapia polleni” small spot from different bloodlines (been told) in a 4 foot 250l tank with loads of driftwood & some ornaments. The fish do get along, with a bit of a brisk chase here & there, however the smallest one is chased the most (it is a bit stressed by all the attention I think). Lately the largest tilapia has all the others in the other end of the tank hanging about. Also when the largest on is on the war-path, it turns darker towards black. However they all mellow out back to light brown when idle & laze about. I am not planning on keeping more than one pair once they pair up. I am not even sure if I can keep a pair in a 4 foot tank as they get larger.


My concern is the natural aggression towards con-specifics. Do I keep them all together till one pair forms or do I separate them & reintroduce later (is that going to cause a problem). Sexing them is not an easy task, a guess at best & there is not much information available online about the species either. Two of the four look like they are males (larger & more spots) & the the other two look like females (smaller & way less spots or still too small to tell).

Also when are they meant to turn black anyhow, or they mean to be light brown till they breed, get agro/stressed? Is the color effected by pH (7.1 to 7.2)? I had them for 6 months & got them when they were 2 to 3 inches. So they must be around a year old. The smallest female gets very shy & dark chocolate brown all the time, when alone away from the other 3 in a 3' tank. I've been wondering if they are inbred or just still too young to show black coloring.

I have partially divided the 4' in 2, so they can come & go, but they don't see all the way trough the tank. Also two of the 3 can pair up perhaps. They get fed twice a day, which should help reducing the aggro in the tank. Having the lights out seems to help as well, because they can’t see each other that well with the room lights on.


I have put the smallest & most chased in the 3' to recover from the split fins, but I am thinking putting the smaller allegedly male in with her later on, because the heat is still on with the 3 in the 4' tank. My only worrie is they will have a go at my FM (Firemouth), but there are plenty of plants etc.

Cheers
 
they will remain brown if stressed, which it sounds like they are.

i have one myself. Chuck is about 8 to 9 inches now (TL) and is almost always a gorgeous velvety black colour with blue spots that look lavender in the sunlight. he took some time to colour up and was brown for a couple of months after i got him at 4 inches.

feeding well will keep the aggression down, that's how i'm able to keep my polleni in with a nearly 12 inch oscar.
 
That is oposite to Green Severums. They go dark when stressed :ROFL:
I've been watching the Paratilapia p. & there may be a chance that the smaller male has paired up with the larger female, but not sure just yet :naughty:
I have seen the smaller male doing the finslapping next to the female yesterday & she seems to prefer the company of the smaller male. The larger male seems to be interested in the female too, but she darts away if he gets near her.
The males went nuts last night in the dark while I was surfing :screwy:
I'll split the tank completely when I get home & I'll observe. If any two has paired up, then I'll need to move the third or vice versa :popcorn:
 
Update:
I did not want the two males fight so I have placed a male with a female into the 3ft & left the other male & female in the 4ft tank.
After only 12 hours both males are way darker now & the females are shifting from light brown to dark deep brown. Most likely due to the male chasing the female every now & then :(
This proves positive for reduced stress-levels for the Tilapia :)
Hopefully they'll pair up & get jet black with a diamond sparkle :naughty:
Thanks for your input BigFishMommy :headbang2
 
hopefully you get two pairs happening, because from my research pollenis are noted to be aggressive towards conspecifics.

oh, here's Chuck, in duplicate lol, in case you'd like to see what they look like all growed up:

1-0514.jpg
 
Wow, what a fish! Looks like it may bite :nilly:

Yes, they don't seem to like each other very much lately. There is a quick chase every minute at least twice. I am not sure about genetics, but wouldn't be an issue with the fry if the pair is from the same spawn?
The 4 juveniles are from different blood. So they parents were not closely related.
Now that I have split up the 4 I can see they get darker towards dark brown most of the time. The largest, presumed male is in the 3 foot away from the rest. I would put a photo, but not sure how to work it up here.
Cheers
 
I think I figured it out... This is an average photo, from when they were all in one tank a bit stressed :nilly:
picture.php
 
definitely stressed by their washed out colouration. yours at that size should be showing the nice inky black colour like mine. you got some nice healthy looking pollenis there though!

if you have the tank space, maybe try seperating them all to a tank of their own and see what happens to their colours? also, what are you feeding? (certain foods are known to enhance colours in fish).

and Chuck doesn't bite at all, he's the biggest wuss when it comes to me mucking in the tank, and he's so passive he'll just swim out of the way when his oscar buddy comes too close. i have a wimp fish! lol.
 
I think I may be getting a bit off topic here...

The fish on the top left (top dog) has been placed in a separate tank & dark brown is the colour unless I am cleaning the tank.
The other 2 larger ones stationary are now dark brown as well, however the smallest one (moving/blurry poss. female) is stressed due to being chaced a lot. I will do a partial divider in the 4foot again to break line of sight.

I feed them a bit of flake in the morning when it's still dark & Hikari Cichlid Bio-Gold+ when I come home. Frozen blood worms are fed twice a week & algae vafers with some shelled/nuked peas get in they diet too :yuck:

Been thinking of making my own frozen food for them one day. So I am about to switch to Hikari Cichlid Gold Sinking mini pellets. The floating ones get swished in where the pipes & the heater is & it's not eaten, but sucked in when they eventually sink.
I would get the Hikari Cichlid Staple, but it is not a sinking type. Is sinking mean to be less trouble & better (it's sold out most places)?

My pH is 7.2 to 7.4 @ 25-26 celsius. I keep ABN & a BGK in the same tank bare bottom with loads of driftwood & some terracotta. May do some Anubias down the road for decor. I use limestone/coral & oyster/scallop shells for buffering in the canister/tank. I do around 20%+ WC per week.
I also do treat the water to remove chloramine. My water is on a soft side from the tap (no KH or GH @ pH 6.8 to 7).
 
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