# Sexing Malawi Peacocks: Too early to tell?



## reepicheep (Sep 9, 2012)

Hello, everyone! I am a new member and new to keeping African cichlids. I am stocking a 75 gallon (48*18*21) and have the intention to keep it an all-male tank.The following is a hopefully detailed description of my tank and I will very much appreciate any advice from you!

My tank is not new (I used to keep a tiger oscar in it), and for filtration I use Cascade 1000 canister filter. I mailed ordered a peacock assortment package from one of the sponsors of this website together with a frontosa, two blue dolphins and two bristlenose plecos. All of the fish are about two inches long, except for one of the plecos. They have been their new home for nearly three weeks now and my water parameters are as follows: pH 8.0 (the pH of my tap water is around 7.4 and I used some buffer chemicals to raise it and it seems to be stable during this three weeks but I haven't done any water changes yet); GH 220 (again my tap water hardness is 140ppm and I used some mineral salts to raise it. It has stayed stable for the past three weeks); ammonia: 0; nitrite: 0; nitrate: 5 (this used to be 0 during the first two weeks but has risen to 5 this week. I plan to do a water change this weekend, would one third be a good amount?)

As for my stockings, my ideal would be one frontosa pus one blue dolphin plus whatever number of male peacocks that my tank can contain. However, I am aware that 75 gallon is probably not a good size for a frontosa so I am willing to rehome it if necessary. As for the peacocks, I am wondering if it would be a good idea to stock as many as 20+ of them when they are at their current size and gradually decrease the number till the desired number and color of males reach a balance? (I mail ordered another 14 young peacocks (up to 2 inches from another retailer, which are going to arrive this Saturday.) Any advice on specific steps on this process?

The link below is a video of my current tank. It seems that there are already some coloring males (the white margins on their dorsal fins seem to reveal their gender?), but I am really not sure when I might be able to tell certainly if they are gents or ladies  (I won't opt for venting unless there was absolutely no alternative!)






Again, any advice on my tank would be highly appreciated and please wish me good luck! :fish:


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## RobAndFish (Feb 27, 2013)

My biggest suggestion is once the males become identifiable pull out any of the more aggressive species of peacocks. The ones I can think of off the top of my head are strawberrys, german reds, and not that your likely to get one in an assorted batch but a lwanda peacock. They can be kept with the others but their are higher risk to bully then some of the other species. Me personally I have a lwanda peacock in my tank who *** consciously allowed to be the dominant male but even with his two females in a 120g he still chases the other peacocks.


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

You will have to remove the females and any males that look similar as they identify themselves (by color or fin shape usually around 3" though this can be done earlier with experience). margins on dorsal fin are not a good indicator of sex, but can be helpful in species ID. That being said, with a mixed peacock selection, you'll never be able to know what species you have. You may be able to guess what it may have in it, but you cannot be sure it's a specific species. From the video: I saw three males so far (the one with the orange head/shoulder area with white dorsal fin, the one with the yellow shoulder area, and another with an orange shoulder/head area). Another issue is what to do with females from a mixed peacock assortment. Female peacocks look very similar. If you knew specifically what species you purchased you could possibly be able to tell them apart but it will be impossible for you to know what species the females are. If you go to a decent fish store, they will never have more than one peacock species in a tank because the females are so hard to tell apart b/n species. So that will leave you with around 50% of your peacocks female and unidentifiable...which should be culled, or kept in your home for the rest of their lives.


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## DanniGirl (Jan 25, 2007)

The tank looks good and it's obvious you do have some males in the tank. 
I'm going to mirror *lilscoots* advice concerning females in an all male setup. Not only will they cause trouble when mature, but it's impossible to tell them apart once mixed together. One idea would be to order a species-only group, keep them in a separate tank until you have an identifiable male then trade the females in for credit. That way, there's no mixing of species within the larger tank.

While 20 juvie peacocks will work for a short time, I would cut that number down by half once they mature; especially given they're in a 48" tank. 
Couple of reasons for that; the size of tank and the availability and compatibility of peacocks.

For a successful all male tank, you want to stock with males that have no resemblance in color. If two males of the same color variant are stocked within the same tank, chances are one will dominate and single out the other male. Furthermore, you will not be able to find 20 peacocks of different color variations. In fact, it's going to be difficult to find 10. Some peacocks such as the kandeense are too shy for an all male group and some such as the jacobfreibergi variants are too aggressive for a 48" tank.

Keep what you have for now but be prepared to pull out fish as they mature. Pull out all the females and if it's possible, try to order identifiable males.


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## GoofBoy (Jul 3, 2007)

Welcome to the addiction.

+1 on all of the female comments.

FWIW, I have found it harder to keep more peacocks than more haps in an all male tank, esp. in a 48in tank. The male peacocks seem to be more intolerant of each other. Don't be surprised at some serious fighting as they mature.

I would think about expanding your fish universe down the road to include more of the smaller haps. (Copadichromis trewavasae, Otopharynx lithobates, Placidochromis electra, etc.)

I would think around 10 males will give you a pretty full 75 gallon once they all grow up, and I will guess not more than 5 or so mature peacock males will end up tolerating each other.

Good Luck & please post more photos as they grow.


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## reepicheep (Sep 9, 2012)

Thank you so much guys, for all the invaluable advice!It indeed seema that stocking an all-male peacock tank is much more challenging than I originally thought it would be  If for a mixed species all male tank resemblance in color is the number one reason for incompatibility, I guess the three identifiable males currently in my tank are not likely to tolerate one another as they mature since they all bear the yellow/orange color?I also seemed to have made a mistake by ordering an assortment batch rather than getting individual species in separate batches, which probably would result in tragic endings for the females--I will not have room to keep the ladies for the rest of their lives and indeed I just realized that no fish store would accept a female without an unequivocal species ID  I doubt if eventually I would have the heart to euthanize them but meanwhile I will pray that all of them are male so that even if I would not be able to keep all of them at least I could rehome them or trade them in? I do know about the species names of the second batch of peacocks that will arrive this weekend, though I hightly doubt this would make any difference since I will have to mix them anyway  but I am still going to list their species here--I purchased them as unsexed and ordered two from each species.
aulonocara stuartgranti chiwindi Blue Neon Chiwindi 
Aulonocara sp. ethylwynnae Ethylwynnae Peacock 
Aulonocara Jacobfreibergi Ottor Point Eureka Red Jake 
Aulonocara Sp. German Red
Aulonocara Stuartgranti Usisya Flavescent 
Aulonocara sp. Caroline Swallowtail
Aulonocara Maylandi Sulfur Head 
Aulonocara Maulana Bi-color 500

Some of the more agressive species mentioned in previous posts are unfortunately included here in the list so I guess my chance of survive a mayhem in the tank as the males mature is going to be slim :? I would be happy if eventually 5 gentlemen decided to tolerate the presence of one another but before that balance is reached I guess I would have to get prepared for casulties :-?

Thank you all!!!


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## DanniGirl (Jan 25, 2007)

Well, at this point, I don't think you'll see aggression for a number of months. So the good news it, you have time to set up another tank. It will be an invaluable tool once you start pulling the females and incompatible males.

Some fish listed on your list will work so hopefully you end up with a few males. :wink:


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## reepicheep (Sep 9, 2012)

Thanks! I happened to come across a post on this site also discussing setting up a 75 gallon all-male hap/peacock tank  (link below).

viewtopic.php?t=2153

Apart from being really curious about the outcome of this then tank-in-progress, I am just wondering if adding certain species of haps might contribute to the general harmony of the tank? :-?


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## DanniGirl (Jan 25, 2007)

If there are no females in the tank and the haps vary in color, they certainly can contribute to the harmony. I'd swap out some of the peacocks for haps and keep the numbers to around 10 mature males that don't exceed 7" when full grown.


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## reepicheep (Sep 9, 2012)

Thanks and now I understand why all-male hap/peacock setup is much more popular and why it is important to stick to the cookie-cutter setup recommended for 75 gallon tanks  Meanwhile I noticed another male's dorsal fin taking shape and color today :dancing: In addition, new fishys are coming tomorrow and I'll continue to post pics or videos after they acclimate!


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## reepicheep (Sep 9, 2012)

An update on the new coloring male in my tank mentioned in my previous reply to my post a few days ago.  I am really amazed by the speed this guy is taking on color! Here is the video:





Is considering him an aulonocara stuartgranti-in-the-making a guess too far-fetched?


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