Tank Mates For my Polleni?! help!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
till they stop trying to kill each other threw the deivder
 
The only thing you need to do is take your other fish back and keep the polleni. Your tank is not large enough for a cichlid community with a polleni and it simply is not going to work. Most madagascars require a good amount of space.

As far as them not mixing well with new worlds this is completely false. In a properly sized aquarium they match up really well with most mildly aggressive SA and CA cichlids. You just need the proper sized tank. The key is not trying to mix them with really aggesive fish. Polleni are large fish that naturally want to defend a territory much like a jag. Give them proper space and tankmates are seldom a problem. Put them with tankmates in a small tank and it doesn't work.
 
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Ive kept polleni several times and currently I have a single male. I have found that this fish hates any similar colored and shaped fish. Here's a few examples. Absolutely destroys my Nile tilapia, then next he pesters my livingstoni trio, When those fish are removed he finds my giant upside down catfish and picks on him (the darkest fish in the tank). I have black substrate so all my fish show darker coloration. if he can find nothing else he will head butt my gibby the aggression is very mild although the gibb is very dark hes still a brown color not black. Now when i remove those fish he's very peaceful towards a giant gold gourami never ever chases him and actually never has. couldn't care less about any light polypterus and other light colored species. Its fascinated me to no end. If the fish is pink, white, etc.in my experience the polleni become absolutely peaceful. Even more to the point when my nile tilapia was housed with him, if he was showing just a light silver coloration the aggression from the Polleni was very mild as the nile slowly showed stress coloration it got worse until the nile was almost black and had to be removed. It seems the darker the Nile became the more unwelcome he was to the Polleni. Ive watched this many times for years with the polleni I have owned. Obviously a giant gourami is too large for you. but it would be interesting to see if you could have success if you obtained a species that was the opposite color and body shape.Id love to know if this is just an extraordinary coincidence or if its more complex behaviors?
 
To note those fish were 3-4 inches and housed in a 55. And as of now the polleni and giant gold gourami are each 5-6 inches peacefully housed in that 55. never an issue. And yes my gourami and tilapia (as well as a host of other fish i have scattered around my house) have much much larger quarters waiting on them.
 
I have a polleni living with eight other Africans in a 55 and have absolutely no problems with aggression from him. My male Benga peacock runs the show in that tank. The tank size isn't the problem. I've kept my polleni in 55s for four years now. He and the other Africans will soon be moving to a 125 so I can add more, but the tank size will work with other fish - just have to be the right fish.
 
My Polleni lives peacefully with over 40 Africans fry to adult size. Most were born in my tank...he is the gentle giant in my 144g
 
wow your polleni must b very aggressive as far as they go. I had one once in a mixed cichlid community but he was the least agressive fish. I decided to take him out, but had to go to work that morning... the second I got home I got a bag and a net and went into the room to get him out, and he had just been killed.


(cry)
 
TheTankMates;4884078; said:
Ive kept polleni several times and currently I have a single male. I have found that this fish hates any similar colored and shaped fish. Here's a few examples. Absolutely destroys my Nile tilapia, then next he pesters my livingstoni trio, When those fish are removed he finds my giant upside down catfish and picks on him (the darkest fish in the tank). I have black substrate so all my fish show darker coloration. if he can find nothing else he will head butt my gibby the aggression is very mild although the gibb is very dark hes still a brown color not black. Now when i remove those fish he's very peaceful towards a giant gold gourami never ever chases him and actually never has. couldn't care less about any light polypterus and other light colored species. Its fascinated me to no end. If the fish is pink, white, etc.in my experience the polleni become absolutely peaceful. Even more to the point when my nile tilapia was housed with him, if he was showing just a light silver coloration the aggression from the Polleni was very mild as the nile slowly showed stress coloration it got worse until the nile was almost black and had to be removed. It seems the darker the Nile became the more unwelcome he was to the Polleni. Ive watched this many times for years with the polleni I have owned. Obviously a giant gourami is too large for you. but it would be interesting to see if you could have success if you obtained a species that was the opposite color and body shape.Id love to know if this is just an extraordinary coincidence or if its more complex behaviors?
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From what I've seen, polleni are most agressive to their own species, to the point I'm astounded that anyone has ever managed to get a pair in aquaria. This meshes with my experience of them as well
 
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