SCORE!! Unidentified Fish at LFS is a.. Polleni?

[Miles]

So I'm wandering through one of my local junk fish stores, and I for some reason decided to look in the 'Convict fry' tank.

I happened to notice some very small black cichlikd-looking fish, with a very distinct body structure. Huge eyes, big underbite, and just 2 or 3 speckles of blue.

I called the guy over, to see if I could get a price.. He then points to the tank next door which had an even larger fish of the same type! He said that he had to seperate them because they were beating each other up. The glass in the tank he seperated the larger one to has had 'Frontosa 12.99' written on it for about a month now, ever since they had that mis-labeled Butti in the tank screwy: )..

I protested it wasn't a frontosa, after he tried to tell me that was the price.. So he went and got the old grandma who is in charge of pricing, and she had no idea what it was. She told me she thinks its a jack dempsey or peacock cichlid, but not sure which?!? This LFS struggles.. But once I saw the larger specimen I was POSITIVE it was a Paratilapia..

Anyways, She sold them to me for JD price.. $4.99!!

I took 2 out of the 3 they had there, as one was about dead.

They are both now in 50g by themselves, getting ready to be grown out.. I hope they are Male/Female.

Anyways, I've always wanted this cichlid, so I thought I would share this cool story!

 

[cichlid savage]

Way to go, I can imagine why that store struggles. Cool story. Good pick up. I think i paid around 15 bucks for my polleni. How about a cpl o' pix.

 

[rallysman]

Awesome score!!
JDman picked up a 6" femaile polleni at an auction for $3 recently. It's going to repairs tank with the males

 

[JD_MAN]

Score! I love getting deals like that.

 

[Carg R]

I paid $15 for a 7 inch female-who my 7-8inch male beat senseless in short order. Once the female heals up, and I free up some tank space they'll be back together (w/ a tank divider).

 

[Ash]

I paid $15 for a 7 inch female-who my 7-8inch male beat senseless in short order. Once the female heals up, and I free up some tank space they'll be back together (w/ a tank divider).

I had to do that with my bleekeri pair.... I ended up having to get rid of the male =(


Anyways thats an awesome pick up I bought my bleeks in Mia - 2 for $5. =p good luck with yours hopefully they are a pair =)

 

[sicklid-holic]

Watchout for those paratilapia polenis or bleks. I started with 5 in a 150gallon full of african cichlids and CA cichlids. But they hate each other so much and now I only have 1 left in that 150gallon. I have to move the other to another tank, since the bigger one want to kill the smaller paratilapia.

 

[Miles]

It sure was one

 

[dmopar74]

very cool! i bought what was sold to me as a bleekeri, and i believe it is at about 2" for $12 and that store has about 20 1"ers for 7$, my lfs gets most of their cichlids from don conkel, perhaps he's breeding em because ive been seeing quite a few around lately.