In the USA a few years ago, a tropical fish wholesaler from New Jersey was maintaining both 'spot' variations, which gave him an opportunity to observe them side by side. He noticed a distinct difference in behavior, size, and fright coloration, which made him certain that rather than being the same species, the fishes might well be two different ones. As a result of following scientific investigation to determine anatomical differences, the small-spot variant was established as the species originally described as "Paratilapia polleni" Bleeker, 1898, and that the large-spot variant was a distinct species.