# Store told me this was a...



## FActr (May 22, 2014)

Dragon blood peacock, but I knew it wasn't. I didn't care though since it's a great looking fish i got him anyway. One thing, the body shape is different than a peacock, or any of the peacocks i have and his body is thicker too. You tell me though, I dont know for sure. i can try to get better pics if needed. lol
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s44 ... 9f88e1.jpg

http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s44 ... a79931.jpg


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## FActr (May 22, 2014)

Here are a few more to try and identify my cichlid.
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s44 ... 46173c.jpg
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s44 ... b3e3e6.jpg - this photo is him above one of my ob peacocks.
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s44 ... 5e8345.jpg
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s44 ... a8e82b.jpg
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s44 ... c3e0a0.jpg


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## rennsport2011 (Oct 21, 2013)

Hybrid Yellow Lab.


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## Hapguy63 (Feb 8, 2014)

definitely not a dragons blood. looks like a yellow lab red zebra hybrid that are common at the big box stores


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

I agree.


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## FActr (May 22, 2014)

well he's more of an orange than yellow. the camera doesn't really capture the color properly. that sounds like a good guess but I have 2 yellow labs and and 2 red zebras and the thickness of body of this fish is just so much more. He's built like a linebacker and those labs and zebras are a skinnier fish by comparison. I wish i had a digital camera to get a quality shot, those are just from my phone


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## FActr (May 22, 2014)

Kanorin said:


> I agree.


is your tank an all male? Is it overstocked to reduce aggression. I would like to get a real big tank and just wonder how this methodology works. The set up i have are unsexed, but overstocked. seems to work but with all males i wonder. Other than differentiating the color, shape and such what are the best ways to have a successful tank like that?


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## nmcichlid-aholic (Mar 23, 2011)

FActr said:


> well he's more of an orange than yellow. the camera doesn't really capture the color properly. that sounds like a good guess but I have 2 yellow labs and and 2 red zebras and the thickness of body of this fish is just so much more. He's built like a linebacker and those labs and zebras are a skinnier fish by comparison. I wish i had a digital camera to get a quality shot, those are just from my phone


It could be that your red zebras just haven't filled out yet. While it's true the yellow labs aren't that heavily bodied, M. estherae are generally a pretty stout mbuna species. Hybrids can display characteristics of either parent, so perhaps the red zebra parent was especially well built. I agree with the others that an M. estherae/L. caeruleus cross is most likely what you've got.



FActr said:


> is your tank an all male? Is it overstocked to reduce aggression. I would like to get a real big tank and just wonder how this methodology works. The set up i have are unsexed, but overstocked. seems to work but with all males i wonder. Other than differentiating the color, shape and such what are the best ways to have a successful tank like that?


Overstocking to reduce aggression works in all-male setups about as well as it does in mixed gender tanks, maybe even a little better. In mixed gender tanks, the best way to reduce aggression is to stock species groups that are compatible in the correct male to female ratios. In an all-male tank, overstocking allows less dominant individuals to escape more dominant aggressors by "getting lost in the crowd" - although, if you have 2 fish that just don't get along this doesn't always work. All-male tanks typically require a lot of trial and error to get a relatively peaceful mix, since even though 2 species should get along in theory, it really depends on the personality of each individual fish. There are quite a few members with all-male tanks that only have half a dozen mature males in a big tank that all get along great, but there are probably more that have a densely stocked all-male tank with mild to heavy aggression. You just have to figure out what your goal is and what works for you as you go.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

FActr said:


> is your tank an all male? Is it overstocked to reduce aggression. I would like to get a real big tank and just wonder how this methodology works. The set up i have are unsexed, but overstocked. seems to work but with all males i wonder. Other than differentiating the color, shape and such what are the best ways to have a successful tank like that?


My all-male tank is actually not overstocked by any stretch (13 cichlids in 125 gallon 6 foot tank)- I originally had 3-4 additional species in it and had a few personality conflicts (aggression of one fish with another) which caused me to rehome those. It's possible that if I added even more species it might have ameliorated the problem, but I chose to just remove the problem makers (or in one case the victim) and that fixed the issue for me.

As you say, choosing males with different colors/shapes is the key - and sometimes there is a bit of trial and error that goes into it.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

To go back to your yellow cichlid - as I look at the pictures again, it is possible that there is some peacock in it's lineage (the eyes seem a bit large for mbuna), but clearly there is a lot of mbuna in it's lineage too (Yellow lab and red zebra is a good guess, as others have said). This is certainly not a "dragonsblood peacock," and I think if your plan is too house this fish with other peacocks, you may or may not have aggression issues down the road depending on how much mbuna (especially red zebra) personality this fish has in it.


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