# Unidentified Peacocks



## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

Was sold these three as if they were color emerging Midnights/Blue Orchids.

My lighting is quite a bit brighter, in store they had more of a copperish tone and some azure bands and heads. Trying to get a better idea of what they might be - thinking possibly Flavescents, but the spots on the sides of two out of the three are really throwing me. Random hybridized strain IS a possibility, but I'm hoping that isn't the case. All are around 3 inches, so young-adultish.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zhksUscdtoF6q1RG3


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

They're definitely hybrids, I was thinking flavescent at first except for the yellow foreheads and no blue streaking in the tail. It's okay though, they may turn out to be really nice looking fish. The only real problem is that peacocks shouldn't be housed with demasoni


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

caldwelldaniel26 said:


> They're definitely hybrids, I was thinking flavescent at first except for the yellow foreheads and no blue streaking in the tail. It's okay though, they may turn out to be really nice looking fish. The only real problem is that peacocks shouldn't be housed with demasoni


Thanks! From certain angles, they have a superficial blue flash from head to tail, but it only clearly appears from maybe 160-175 degrees relative to the head or tail.

Regarding the demasoni - they're all pretty young at the moment and I keep a close eye for any misbehavior. My 40 breeder is fully set up, cycled, and identical water parameters, so if I catch even a whiff of anything wrong, then over to it they go. Have been training green algae on the rocks in it under the assumption that one day the Dems will need to move.

So far, they've been swimming around as if they're part of the peacock school, and the peacocks occasionally play chase with them. I do mean play there, where it's reciprocal and non violent - not even attempted nipping, head ramming, or anything like that - just small play chases that go back and forth before returning to the same swimming around in a larger school as before without anyone having fled for the cover of the rocks.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

With flavescents, the tail would be blue with yellow streaks and the head would be completely blue but it's really more like a sunshine with a blue dorsal fin. Once the demasoni start to reach sexual maturity their aggression will really start to show, which is why they are "getting along" since they are all small. But good thinking having another tank set up for them.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

They may be Lithobates mixed with Aulonocara... :-?


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Yeah the spots look very similar to an otopharynx lol, wouldn't that be something...


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

http://malawicichlids.com/mw08016c.htm

That's the closest thing I've found so far - just stumbled across it by accident


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

Drake1588 said:


> http://malawicichlids.com/mw08016c.htm
> 
> That's the closest thing I've found so far - just stumbled across it by accident


Yes, those are superficially quite similar, but already ruled those Copidichromis out because of the vertical barring and the face looks more Aulonocara-ish... plus do they have some sort of forehead color? that fish doesn't have that.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Plus the yellow blaze on the forehead kinda messes it up... The more I look at the pictures it does look a lot like a sunshine/lithobates hybrid with the spots and vertical barring.


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

noki said:


> Drake1588 said:
> 
> 
> > http://malawicichlids.com/mw08016c.htm
> ...


They don't - when I get close enough to the tank to take photos, they get curious and active, so they swim upwards and the lighting is intense enough that their fully blue heads look like they have a different color. In my living room, they very much resemble a copadichromis mbenji, and the photos may be making them look like a sunshine hybrid. The head shape is a little off standard, and the spotting on the sides is either poor or still developing, but they have the blue superficial lateral sheen that copas do.

Really appreciate y'alls help on this one! May post them back here in six months or so when they've grown out more. I'm almost certain the females I was sold with them are not even related to them in any way, because they look almost nothing like the females of any of these possible species, so crossbreeding them may not be a concern after all.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

So what do the "females" look like?

These are all bad signs, sold under a different name, the juvenile color/ female color is off or don't match the male color... and they were sold as Blue Orchid? These are just attractive hybrids, the face doesn't match at all.


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

noki said:


> So what do the "females" look like?
> 
> These are all bad signs, sold under a different name, the juvenile color/ female color is off or don't match the male color... and they were sold as Blue Orchid? These are just attractive hybrids, the face doesn't match at all.


One is silver, black vertical banding 3 black spots in same place as males. One is a medium-dark gray, same markings as other. Third is just a silver grey with faint black vertical bars, no banding. Small amount of white streak with an orange streak above it along the dorsal and tail fin on the first two females as well, but it's extremely faint.

To be fair, they were "assorted cichlids" - but the store owner told me they were blue orchid or midnights. They've really colored up a lot in the last few days, especially in the tail, it's getting a black Fringe at the very edge to go with the orange and white.


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

Got confirmation from the LFS that these are indeed copadichromis borleyi mbenji. I asked the owner to talk to her source and see what the shipment contained. She mislabeled them as peacocks rather than haps, I'd assume due to their appearance. So at least I know what to expect now, assuming the breeder she bought from had pure line stock. They do (in the aquarium) look and behave exactly like specimens I've seen on YouTube that are much larger than these, so that was heartening.

Will never shop there again due to the poor knowledge of what is being sold, livestock wise, as other fish were misrepresented in terms of water parameters as well.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

I'm sorry but I think your LFS is lying to you because they don't want to admit that they have no idea what they are selling. There's several points of identification that don't match up with known specimens of pure mbenji. From the multiple pictures you posted, I can definitively say it's not what your LFS claims...


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

caldwelldaniel26 said:


> I'm sorry but I think your LFS is lying to you because they don't want to admit that they have no idea what they are selling. There's several points of identification that don't match up with known specimens of pure mbenji. From the multiple pictures you posted, I can definitively say it's not what your LFS claims...


Definitely a distinct possibility, but I didn't offer up what I thought they were. I just called and asked her to check because they were NOT what I was told they were when I bought them. I'm just going to operate off the assumption they are a hybrid strain and on the chance they produce fry, I need to make sure those fry don't make it out of my house. My main concerns were figuring out likely adult size and nutritional needs, so I have a baseline of what to prepare for in the next year. My current tank is big enough to accommodate a 6" adult, but not an 8 or 9. I'm already planning and accumulating equipment for a six or eight foot tank for the red fin borleyi, but I'd rather house them separately if they're related enough to readily hybridize.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

I hear you, that's the responsible thing to do, well done grasshopper, you've got potential lol.


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

caldwelldaniel26 said:


> I hear you, that's the responsible thing to do, well done grasshopper, you've got potential lol.


Hehe thanks!


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