# New peacock tank



## TNprogrammer (Jul 28, 2008)

I just set up a new 55gal tank. I want to raise only peacocks. I'm going to start with 3 types, probably 3 of each and move them to the 200 gal I am building as they grow. What 3 types do you think are the most stunning in color. Thanks.

Glenn


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## Gibbs (Apr 21, 2008)

I wouldn't have 3 of the same species because only 1 will colour up properly, the other 2 will look rather drab and will get bullied by the dominant males.
Single specimens of different species works best with any haps/peacoks and it's best to choose peacock species that don't look alike. Don't have females because they will hybridize and you will end up woth all sorts of cross breeds


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I think Gibbs said this, but just to support the statement: You can't raise 3 types of peacocks in the same tank if you want to save the fry. They will crossbreed. So if you want to raise peacocks there should be only one species per tank.

(Also once you've mixed the females of 3 types in a tank, you can't differentiate because they have similar appearances, so you will then have a bunch of females you can't use in the future as breeders either.)


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## Fish_Dude (Aug 13, 2006)

What? Actually, I disagree with the advice.

I have a 55 gallon with random peacock that are growing our.. granted, it's not a breeding tank, but I have a full color Ruby Red, BiColor, Maisoni and Koenigs in the same tank... a bunch have not colored up, but the top 4 are stunning fish... I'm just waiting until they get big enough to put in my big show tanks... they're still too small.

While I don't recommend keeping mulitple species of Peacocks in the same tank for breeding, you can probably get away with it as long as you keep Jacobfriebergi and say, Stuartgranti, which are the most common types. Jakes a quite a bit different than Stuartgranti and didn't used to be listed as alanocara. They're more of a cave species, more agressive. Also get bigger on average. I believe there is an article on this site about keeping multiple species.

However, I'm not sure you're interested in breeding! You said you wanted to grow fish, right? If you go all male and aren't planning on keeping fry, you can keep all sorts of cool peacocks!

Some of my favorites are Stuartranti... remember, these are all the same species, just color varients! I've got a screaming baby.. so I'm going to have to go with the common names for most.

Stuartgranti:

Flavescent- Black dorsal with white ridge, a good quality will have a strong yellow througout the body.
Bi-Color: A nice glowing blue throuout with a strong yellow band on the front half of the body.
Blue Neon: Flavescent with less yellow intensity and 'neon blue' dorsal instead of black
Ngara: I think they're overrated, but a nice blue with a red/orand 'swoosh' across the lower body to the tail.
Cobwe: Mine is awesome! He's a really cool blue with Red pelvic fin.
Ruby Red: Line Bred(supposedly) of the Mareri strain for Red. you MUST get a good quality one of these. Looks like a "sunshine" but orange/red instead of yellow.
Banechi/Maleri: Similar but minor body differences... yellow with blue lower face. Got to get at least one for a color splash.

Jacobfreibergi: 
Lemon Jake: Blue with Yellow fins and yellow on head/upper body. Cool!
Otter Point: Cool, blue with a slash of yellow on the body with red on his fins.. all depends on strain though.
Lwanda: I consider this a Jake.. Purple with a Yellow ridgeon the dorsal and yellow on the body.. a nice specimen is a real eye catcher

Beware, the jakes can get big, and are more agressive than the other peacocks.

Other Peacocks:

Midnight Peacock: One of my favorites.. Black dosal, white ridge, an interesting purple/black/yellow body that's really hard to describe... they're different.

OB: Orange Blotch.. hybrid.. can be quite mean actually... but a splash of color

I would stay away from albinos unless you want to do an all albino tank... they will NOT get along long term with non-albino fish. If you want something that has an albino look, go with a dragons blood hybrid or something.

But my color splash recomendation? Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue.... 
Ruby Red, Baneschi/Benga/Maleri, Flavescen or Blue Neon, Cobwe or Red Shoulder.
A lemon jake OR a Lwanda(they tend to fight).. maybe an Otter Point OR eureka Red.
Oh, and the Midnight Peacock, I highly recommend this guy.

I would also stay away from the Maylandi/Kandeses varients as they do NOT do well in a mixed environment.

Hope I didn't confuse...


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## cater20155 (Jun 16, 2008)

If you want to set up an all male tank, there are a variety of colorful males that you could get. I have an all male peacock tank and I added a German red, a Red shoulder, a Blue regal,a Sulfur head, a Sunshine, a Flame tail, a Eureka, and a Yellow regal. I also added a few haps to get more fish, a Yellow princess, a Zimbabwe rock, a Blue ahli (S. Fryeri), a Yellow lab, a Lethrinops sp. Yellow collar, and a Vic sp. 35.


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## Gibbs (Apr 21, 2008)

What both DJRansom and i are trying to say is that *multiple males of a single species isn't a good idea *because only 1 will colour up.
*Multiple species *on the other hand is a different story, they should all colour up.

As the OP stated he wants to keep 3 of each species, which isn't a good idea for an all male tank or a breeding tank containing multiple species of peacocks.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Fish_Dude said:


> What? Actually, I disagree with the advice.
> 
> Hope I didn't confuse...


You confused me!

I would not house any two species of peacocks together if I planned to breed and distribute fry, it doesn't matter what species they are.

I would recommend an all male tank if your interested in keeping different variants of peacocks!


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## Fish_Dude (Aug 13, 2006)

Second you on the haps...

The Frieri(Hap Ahli) are a great addition.
I also recommend O. Lithobates, P. Steveni "Taiwan Reef", C. Travaswe and P. Electra, P. Phenochilus, P. Red Empress and T Interemdius and C. Borleyi(not the Kandango/Crocodile, but the varients with the long long pelvic fins!).

The Red Empress and Phenochilus are the largest of these fish...

Another thing that can work is a quality yellow lab or two(hard to find nice ones).. to add some more eye pop yellow. The only Mbuna I keep.


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## Fish_Dude (Aug 13, 2006)

I think I'm going to answer his question....

If I picked 3...

Ruby Red
Benga/Baneschi/Maleri
Cobwe/Masoni/Konningsi

That's Red/Orange, Yellow and Blue...

I would consider Lemon Jake... for their yellow/blue and varient body shape....

But I'd say that if I had to choose three... Red, Yellow and Blue would be the best.

What do you mean by "grow" do you mean buy fish and grow them out, or breed?


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## AfriCarman (Feb 12, 2006)

Just put a couple of synodontis in the tank and there won't be any fry for long. I have 8 different species in a 125gal and I have not ever had a fry live longer than a week before being eaten. I will agree that if you are selling or trading in any of the fry each species needs its own tank.


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## Gibbs (Apr 21, 2008)

I would suggest doing an all male tank with only 1 male of each species. And you could have more then 3, providing your filtration is good your could fit about 7 or 8 lone males maybe more.

I don't see the point in having drab females that are going to be producing fry that are destined for death. Leave the females for interested breeders. Whats going to happen when it's time to go another path, in terms of the stock list, the females will be impossible to tell apart and god knows were they will end up.

ALL MALE


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## TNprogrammer (Jul 28, 2008)

Great input folks! I suppose I was a bit non-specific when I said "grow". I do NOT want to breed any peacocks in this tank for the specific reason that I don't want to create hybrids. I do plan on it being an all male tank. Also, I'm building a plywood tank right now that will end up being around 240gal, and I will move these guys to that tank as they get bigger. I want to purchase them as young as possible so that they all grow up together. I've got an established 40gal right now that I want to convert to a breeder tank, but I just haven't decided what I want to breed yet 
I got into keeping cichlids in college about 15 years ago, but have been away from aquariums for about 10 years and am just now getting back into it. In college, though, I mixed all kinds of cichlids. Mostly out of ignorance, but I controlled aggression with a bit of overstocking. I had around 15 different cichlids in each of two 55 gal tanks. All the fish were around 3-4 inches long, and there was LOTS of rocks and caves in the tanks. 
I just want to be more prudent about how I do things now that I'm not a starving college student and can afford to do things the right way 
I will be picking up my first three peacocks today from a great LFS here in Nashville called Aquatic Critter. These guys have been in business for 22 years at the same location and really know their stuff. They also have a very good selection of cichlids. My only other question is this:
If I get three types of peacocks, and three of each kind about two weeks apart until I have 9 in the tank, should I get one of each every time or make all three fish the same every time I get them? Or does it even matter?
Thanks.

Glenn


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## Gibbs (Apr 21, 2008)

Ok so you want 3 of each kind, is that so you have a chance at scoring a male and then getting rid of the ones you don't want?


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## cater20155 (Jun 16, 2008)

Go one of each kind and try to get 9 different kinds with varying colors. This will give you the most color diversity and you should have every fish color up too.


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## TNprogrammer (Jul 28, 2008)

No particular reason. Like somebody said earlier, if I could get 7-9 males that were each a different type that would be cool also. I just want as much variety(color) as possible. If I accidentally get a female, I'll probably move her to a different tank with her own kind.


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## TNprogrammer (Jul 28, 2008)

yes, Cater, I really like that idea. Are there any peacocks I should really stay away from because of aggressiveness?


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## Gibbs (Apr 21, 2008)

Now your talkin 

I find the best way to go about it, is look through the profile section and find peacocks that you really like. The key to success is chosing males that don't resemble each other to much, if they do they will see each other as compitition and fight.

The way you plan on doing it is fine but if you buy say 2 different groups consisting of 3 in each group and put them in the tank at the same time, you eventually lose track of what is what, especially when buying unsexed fish because they all look the same. Once you do eventually get a male or 2 colour up and it's time to take the fish back to the shop or sell them your not going to be 100% sure which fish is which .

Buying sub-adult males, you can notice a little colouration in the males faces. These would be far better to buy, that way you will only have to buy the 1 not the 3, your not gonna have to muck around with fish or wait for them to start maturing and the process will take alot less time and effort.

An all male peacock tank is never ending, sometimes you luck out on the quality of fish so you buy another of the same for a better result. Sometimes the mix isn't right, so you have to adjust the fish list a little.

Read the article on peacocks in the library section. It's very informative and a really good start :thumb:

Good luck 
Steve


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## Gibbs (Apr 21, 2008)

As far as the most aggresive peacocks go, The jacobfreibergi species (eureka, otter points, lemon jakes) are the most aggresive so it might be wise to stock only 1 of these. Also stay away from OB's, they always seem to cause trouble probably because they all have identity issues


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## cater20155 (Jun 16, 2008)

I have found that if you get fish that have a different color style, you wont run into to much of an aggression problem. My most aggressive peacock is my red shoulder and he is not that aggressive. As Gibbs said, the most aggressive are the jacobfreibergi, which are the biggest of the peacocks also. In one of my previous posts on page 1 i listed all my fish, they get along nice and have a variety of color, ill also be adding a blue neon and a malawi butterfly soon. Also look into a few haps, they can add more variety without alot of aggression.


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## Fish_Dude (Aug 13, 2006)

Lwanda peacocks and Lemon Jakes can go like it. Lwanda are closely related and colored similar. I've had these two go at it rather agressively. 
Personally, my Lemon Jakes always end up subdominan in the tank. It took me three to get one that didn't get picked on, stress and die. Of course, there were other Jakes in the tank causing this stress... so keeping just one is probably a good idea.

I have the Lemon Jake as my only Jake in a 125 and he's a pussycat.


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