Polleni question

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spongebrode

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 26, 2007
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Kingston, ON Canada
My LFS recently got in some Paratilapia Polleni juvies. I originally purchased one and put it into my 90 gal tank where he's doing well. I then decided I wanted to try and get a breeding pair so I bought 2 additional juvies and placed them into my 65 gallon. I wasn't able to sex them as they were just over an inch so I figured i'd grow em out a bit and sort it out later.

I have read that Polleni are less aggressive than Bleeks but are fairly intolerant of their own kind. I figured 2 small juvies in a 65 would be fine given their small size and the room that a 65 affords them. WRONG! One of the polleni has beaten the other one to within an inch of it's life. Started out as chasing and developed into severe nipping to where the one poor guy has many scales missing, hardly any fins left, and most of his tail is missing with wounds into the flesh of his tail. I pulled it into a 10 gal and put in some Mel/Pima fix and some salt in hopes of saving it. He's eating but he's in pretty rough shape and im obviously worried about infections etc. setting in.

Is this a normal aggression level for this species? Is it a matter of not having enough juvies to spread the aggression around? I'd really like to get a pair of these guys but wonder if it's worth it to buy more at $9 each. Perhaps a single fish might be best.

Thanks for any insight you guys might have.
 
So far my polleni (6-7 inch) male and female have ended their time together with the female being beaten up.

If I had the tank space I'd buy 5-7 polleni at $9 a piece and let the aggression work out (more targets to absorb the pain).
 
I have some experiance with these guys.

I have a 120 with 40 of them and they do fine but they are all from the same spwan and are 3 to 5".

I also have a 300 with a full grown female and 2 males... well now it's one male. It's strange the female kills the males, well at least the second one. this tank was home to 2 adukt males and they were fine and then I added the female, within 2 day one of the males was dead. I thought that the males must have been fighting over the female and the one was killed. I had another adult male that had to be moved from a tank that I keep in a doctors office so being that he was an adult I thought that I would put him into the 300 and this time I would watch for any fighting. Things were fine for 2 or 3 days but then the female started beating up the new male and he had to be removed.

What does this prove? nothing it's just my experiance.
 
I bought 6 young big spots and placed them in their own 80. One quickly became the evident leader and, apparently, he was hormonally inhibiting the growth of the other 5. The 5 remained 2" and under while the leader quickly grew to over 4". When I removed the larger one, only one of the remaining 5 started growing again. I've since placed each one in their own tank to allow them to catch up to the leader. Once they're all roughly the same size, I'll see if I can get a pair of them to bond.

polleninplec.jpg
 
can anyone elabrorate with any authority on the classifications of the small and large spot

as of 1999 I found in print they are two sepreate species P polleni ( small spot) P bleekri ( Large spot )

I have read in another thread on this forum that again they are the same species now bleekri.

If someone has this in print or a link would be greatly appreciated.
 
I've had my pair for 5 years. They seem to like smaller tanks, as opposed to a larger one. I had zero aggression for the first 4 years, with one successful breeding in a 29. 2 weeks after moving the pair into their own 55, the male began beating the female. Best of luck to you. If you need your help, I'll do my best. P.S. They really do seem to do better in a species tank.

polleni post.jpg
 
Here's a couple more pics.

polleni post 2.jpg
 
Having to resize everything takes alot of time and I have so many pictures to show off. Any help on faster resizing?
 
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