I was watching the 55g today (Peacock/Yellow Lab tank) and noticed that the new Blue Blotch Peacock has taken roll of tank boss. The tank is all males except one Yellow lab female and the two smaller OB Peacocks are still too small to sex. I hope they are both males. I just thought I would share I love these guys. I think I am going to go get some more Peacocks and Mbuna for the other tank this week.

Man I need to start keeping africans. I'm missing out on alot!

An update of this guy. Also blogged at AC!

Well as some of you reading may know I keep a variety of Cichlids. I just recently set up a 55g Peacock/Lab tank. I started collecting the Peacocks in May/June. I finally finished off my Peacock tank two weeks ago.



I have had relatively good luck with the stocking. For some reason I had the idea that keeping Peacocks together was going to be easier than keeping Mbuna or large SA/CA Cichlids. I don't know what I was thinking there. Well my original stock started as follows.



2x Ruby Red Peacock
1x Strawberry Peacock (hybrid)
3x Yellow Labs
3x Blue Blotched/Red/Orange Blotched Peacock/Hap (hybrids)
1x Blue Neon Peacock (undu Reef) Wild Caught (R.I.P 8/30/08)
1x Sciaenochromis ahli
1x Sciaenochromis fryeri (Taiwan Reef)
1x Victorian Haplochromis sp. "blue obliquidens"

2x Albino Peacocks



My first mistake was getting two fish of the same species. The two Ruby Reds fought for a while. I seperated them and reunited them and had to do this again. They now coexist pretty well. Secondly The Ahli and Fryeri are very closely colored (basically the same) one tirelessly became weaker than the other. This brings me to the Hap/Peacock hybrids. They all got along well. One was almost full grown and became a bully to all the others in the tank. Before I could figure out who the real bully was he had stressed fish in to the corners.



So here is what happened in a nut shell. I Had the Blue Neon Peacock (undu Reef) Wild Caught die on 8/30/08 likely stress related. Soon after I lost the Sciaenochromis ahli. The two Albinos were the last two added fish. This is when I found out the Large BB Peacock/Hap was causing problems. The two Albinos never acclimated well and eventually died a few days ago. I moved the Blue Blotched to my Mbuna tank where he is fitting in really well.



The current stock in the Mbuna tank is as follows...

2x Ruby Red Peacock
1x Strawberry Peacock (hybrid)
3x Yellow Labs
2x Blue Blotched/Red/Orange Blotched Peacock/Hap (hybrids)
1x Sciaenochromis fryeri (Taiwan Reef)
1x Victorian Haplochromis sp. "blue obliquidens"

1x Unknown Hap species



The tank is doing well with the current stock. I am glad that I finally found a formula that worked. I am mad I lost the fish I did but I guess it worked it self out. I want to finish the tank off with 3-4 Synodontis Petrocola.



The moral to the story is when dealing with cichlids beware that no matter how experienced you are you can still run in to problems. Don't be afraid to try and cichlids are rewarding fish to keep. I have grown to love the challenge of keeping Cichlids!