RE: Paratilapia Polleni

["Hess, Clay A" <Clay.Hess@PSS.Boeing.com>]

Good Afternoon Fellow Fishheads,

I have attached an interesting question from Heather.  Could one of you please 
help to answer this question with what you know, or, provide her with a name of 
someone that might be able to help her?  Please cc me on the response as I want 
to make sure that Heather gets some sort of answer to this.  

Dave, what do you know about this one?

Thanx for the help,

Clay Hess
GSAS President

> ----------
> From:         Heather[SMTP:heather@comcoa.com]
> Sent:         Tuesday, August 14, 2001 12:28 PM
> To:   'jaholme1@ix.netcom.com'
> Subject:      Paratilapia Polleni
> 
> Howdy,
> 
> I am looking for anyone with information regarding the Paratilapia Polleni 
> (small spot).  About a month ago I bought one at a fish store, and was told 
> he had gotten two as a pair but both were males.  After reading some, I 
> bought the other male and put him in the tank.  The first is a lighter 
> brown color with rounded fins whose spots are small.  The second is jet 
> black with fins that come to a point and has pin hole size spots.  Are 
> these differences due to sex, genetics, or are they two different species? 
> (One being a bleekeri -- it has small spots but they are not pin hole size 
> like the black one)  I have tried e-mailing a lot of people and no one 
> knows much or where to buy more polleni.  I do know that these fish were 
> "friendly" when I introduced them.  Swimming together, moving dirt, and 
> such and that was within the first few hours.  The brown fish is slightly 
> larger than the black one and now the black one is getting its fins 
> shredded, but as I have learned this species is ornery towards each other 
> even with mates.  So is this normal behavior and will seperating and 
> reintroducing work, or will I have to get others so that they can find 
> compatible mates.  Or are they both males like the store owner said (he had 
> the polleni mispelled <poledi> and he doesn't know about these fish so I 
> don't know how reliable his judgement is)
> 
> Any help you can send my way would be most appreciative.  I have had 
> success breeding cichlids in the past (Jack Dempseys and Red Jewels), and I 
> have 3-4 stores that I can sell fish to.  Being as the polleni is rare and 
> so far is a challenge, it is one I would like to undertake but have come up 
> against a brick wall.  The few "experts" that I have found that had 
> information on these fish, have not e-mailed back.
> 
> So any response, even if its you don't know, will be most appreciative.
> 
> Thanks a bunch, Heather MacKay
>