# demasoni & peacocks



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Hi, Im kind of new to cichlids so Im trying my hardest to get it right. So I figure I should use all of my resources (this forum & my very good cichlid people at the LFS). Im am asking here first.
Could i mix demasoni and peacocks?
My stock list right now is
2 red eureka
1 benga yellow
1 albino peacock
1 featherfin cat

would the demasoni be too aggressive for this set up?


----------



## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. I know that's probably not what you'd want to hear but the Demasoni would likely just me too much for the milder Peacocks. Only way you'd have a chance would be if the Peacocks were much larger, say 4" to 1", but even then it would probably only work temporarily.


----------



## Cobotis (Mar 3, 2004)

Depends on how big your tank is....


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

uuum OK well I just really want something very pretty to go with them.
Something with a different body shape and colors.
I liked their stripes and blue on blue.
And my S. fryeri has taken over the tank. (forgot about him when i was saying them above! oops)
So now Im buting $25 - 40 Peacocks to keep up w/ his size and aggression. Funny thing was that the LFS (I now call it the 'Stupid LFS')said he wouldnt be aggressive!
My Benga yellow is bigger that he is but get picked on! Talk about effed up! :lol: 
So can you guys give me somebody that will go well and I can breed ok with the other fishies I have?


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

A 75gall
Im dieing to up grade!


----------



## NarakuAulonocara (Oct 29, 2005)

For different shape/color

You could add yellow labs or P. acei for color

For shape you could add clown loaches or silver dollars (I find them to be good dither fish for peacocks and they can adapt to harder pH water )


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

for me yellow labs are just a litttle to common and p. acei need to be kept in groups and all around im just not sure about them!
If I have to special order that is cool. My main LFS could special order me the world if i asked them to.
I need something breath taking and rare!


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The highest odds of success with peacocks are keeping them alone. The next highest odds are keeping them with haps. Among mbuna, yellow labs with peacocks have a high success ratio. More rambunctious mbuna are likely to cause the peacocks to mute their colors, be stressed and have trouble competing for food.

Have you looked through the hap profiles for haps that are 6" or less at maturity?


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

i have a little bit but not much


----------



## vmayers (Feb 1, 2007)

If you are looking for something with a different body shape and would like to stick with peacocks you could try Aulonocara rostratum.


----------



## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

You say you have two "red eureka." If they are both male, you have to remove one. If one is a female, you're going to have hybrid peacocks before long.

You really have three basic Malawi options:

A male peacock/hap tank, which is quite beautiful and fun to stock.
A peacock tank with males and females, which limits your color and number of different peacocks to avoid cross-breeding
A mbuna tank

You really need to decide and then stock accordingly . . .


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

I understand the red eureka thing. Im still in the growing out process with them both (on the 2" side) I am waiting to see which one colors up first and I will keep that one and return the other one for a differen peacock species.
Now I have a question! could I keep a couple females in a 40gal? Would it worked if I put the male in when I wanted them to breed? Im going to guess not but I want other people to tell me no first! aaah the fun of keeping cichlids.
I also have a yellow calvus in with them. I know several people who keep them w/ their peacocks and they get along fine. The two species dont even notice eachother!
Only 2 of my peacocks are getting some color (the benga yellow and the albino).
I am also going to start adding more males more often. What other species would go well with the current ones I have (I like the Aulonocara rubescens but have no idea on the aggression level).
The guy at my LFS keeps trying to get me to get the red shoulder (would that work?)
I dont want any haps as of right now. They dont really bring that much color and some are to aggressive while others are to shy. I think I will go all male peacock (and my calvus and featherfin cat, the last hap i had beat the **** out of him)


----------



## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

You get check aggression level of all the peacocks on the profiles page. Ruby reds are not terribly aggressive and a particular favorite of mine. I do not have trouble between my Eureka Red and my Ruby Red, but it might depend on the coloring of the them . . .

My red shoulder is very pretty and not aggressive, and he won't look like the ones you already have in the tank, so he could be a good choice

There are several "haps" that I would recommend (don't bring color ???). Two nice peaceful haps that won't look like your existing stock:

Otopharynx lithobates 
Copadichromis mloto ivory head


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

IMO I dont think they are not all as colorful as the peacocks and most mbuna but i will check out the ones you said!


----------



## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

Peacocks can basically be put into two aggression categories:

Jacobfreibergi (usually more aggressive)

and

Not Jacobfreibergi. (usually less aggressive)

Of course there are exceptions to this rule, but special consideration needs to be utilized when building a tank with a Jake species compared to one without, so at this point any non Jake species would theoretically work out just as well as any other non Jake to add to your tank!


----------



## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

One should place Lwandas in the Jake category. Though this species is not yet described, it behaves like a Jake.


----------



## bcb680 (Jan 16, 2006)

Not too sure about rare, but some Hap. sp. 44 might be good in there. Mine hold their own against the nastiest Mbuna and the males can be quite striking.


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

bcb680, because they hold their own against mbuna wouldnt they be a little too aggressive for my peacocks?


----------



## bcb680 (Jan 16, 2006)

oh yeah..sorry...the title of the thread made me think you were looking for something to put with demasoni. my bad


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Oh OK I was confused for a second! :lol: 
I was trying to figure out what that had to do w/ peacocks!


----------



## Guest (Apr 15, 2008)

I have a demasoni with a bunch of peacocks in my 90G at the moment. Peacocks grow much bigger than demasoni, so it won't be a problem. My demasoni don't bother any other fish in the tank. I have successfully kept demasoni with peacocks in many different occassions with no issues. I also have a male sp.44 in the same tank and no issues. I've had sp.44, demasoni, and peacocks in a same tank with no issues in the past.

By the way, my ruby red rules the tank. Very aggressive.


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Well last time I was there they had a bunch of D's but they were 7.99 for one and I didnt know if they would mix well w/ my peacocks so I held off!
Now IDK who to listen to! The people who say no or the person who says yes!


----------



## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

The generally held rule in the cichlid community is that most Mbuna will be too aggressive for most Peacocks. That doesn't mean there are never exceptions as in dntx's case but if you were to poll 100 seasoned cichlid keepers the consensus would be consistent with this thread.

I always just thought of Lwanda's as Jakes, I didn't even realize they haven't been officially described. Hard to believe considering how popular they are in the hobby!


----------



## Guest (Apr 15, 2008)

Problem with consensus on this site is that a lot of folks post their thoughts based on what they've read rather than their own experiences. You would be surprised how many disaster combos actually work.

For example, I've had 2 demasoni co-exist peacefully and breed in my tank. But I agree that is a rare exception.

Anyhow, I have found peacocks to be pretty tough and hold their own against most fish I kept. But then again, that's based on my 4 years of keeping various african cichlids.


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

well strike that! :lol: 
guess Ill jus get a couple more calvus and be happy for now!  
How about these:
ADD:
1 Aulonocara jacobfreibergi (Otter Pt.) (would it be hard to get?)
1 demansoni (i can always see what happens  )
1 Aulonocara kandeense (again I'm not sure how hard it would be to get one)
1 red shoulder
1 Aulonocara stuartgranti (Usisya) (again with the might not be able to get it)
EXISTING:
1 benga yellow
2 red eureka (one will be removed)
1 albino eureka
1 calvus (I will most likely get more because I might not be able to get someof the above)


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

I had an idea!
Would a couple kribs work? I mean their aggression level IMO is a little higher but then the peacocks are larger so they woulnt be bothered!
would kribs work as well?


----------



## tmcbride67 (Jul 6, 2007)

If you want something similar looking to the Demasoni, but less agressive, you might want to look at Pseudotropheus sp "Blue Dolphin" http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=2605


----------



## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

The otter point and the eureka red are closely related and look fairly similar. I recently sent my otter point back to the LFS and kept my eureka red. They did harrass each other a bit, although not too bad, but I personally didn't like how similar they looked and the eureka red is much prettier IMHO


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

OK then scratch the otter point!
And I just dont like the "Blue dolphin" as well as the D so I guess I will go with neither! (Or try it and see what happens opcorn: ! If i saw too much aggression I would just pull him!
What about a brichardi? Someone ealse on here keeps front peacocks blood parrots and brichardi in the same tank!?
Is it possible?


----------



## Fish_Dude (Aug 13, 2006)

Eureka Reds can be pretty mean themselves. I keep 2 demasoni in each of my big tanks. a 125 and 180 and they cause no issue with the haps/peacocks.. or even each other... but the tank is large enough. I would 'try' it, but some fish like Baneschi are much too timid and probably wouldn't do well... even with Jakes in the tank. Or that has been my experience.

P. taiwan reef can take care of themselves as well. Mine doesn't take **** from anyone.. well, I did have a Bucco that met his match, but that goes without saying I guess.

Oh, and Labs may be common, but I rarely have seen a nice strain of labs, they're so oveebred the stock is poor. If you get a nice strain, it's not 'too common'.


----------



## Fish_Dude (Aug 13, 2006)

Odd.. I find my otter point, while having the same pattern, is quite different in the way they look, but I can see where they would fight. My Ottter Point is blue boddy with a cool yellow with an awesome red on his fins... My eureka.. I keep for a splash of Red. He's not my favorite, but I also find him hard to part with. If I had a nice Ruby Red in the tank, I'd keep the Otter Point... but that's just me... now you have two opinions. Here is a third: If you keep a Jake, you might want to look at a "lemon".. cool fish, and they don't seem as agressive as Eurekas, Otter Points, or even Lwandas....


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

K well I probably will end up getting some!
Mosy of the people that replyed have never kept one under those issues and the ones that have dont have anything bad to say about them but who knows I might get a bad apple (that would be my luck!).
So which one of my peacocks are too shy? the benga yellow or the albino? Right noe the benga rules the tank and the albino is runner-up.
How ever my tiny calvus will hold its own against everyone! He even chases the benga which is about 4x bigger!
I am also thinking about getting a single brichardi because i have heard from many people who keep them alone (in a african community) that they are very nice fish.
So what do you think???


----------



## Rift485 (Dec 3, 2004)

Well all the advise given can be used as a guideline for you. As you have noticed with your Baenschi, sometimes certain individuals of a species can surprise you regarding aggression levels. Also, some individual fish just don't like certain other individual fish. My Flametail hates my Intermedius male (Blue vs. Green) but gets along fine with my Red Shoulder (Blue vs Blue). Try explaining that one!

The point is, no matter what advise we give you you'd really have to try it for yourself to find out exactly who works out with who. If you stay within the average advise from the forum members hopefully you will be a little bit more likely to be successful with your selections. Another HUGE factor is how you introduce new fish to the tank.

2 days ago I introduced 4 Placidichromis Phenochilus (3"-4") to an established tank with an Alpha male Red Shoulder, Beta male Flametail, and 3rd in line (but still aggressive) Red Peacock. Being of similar size if I had just dropped those Phenos in they would have gotten torn up by my other fish. What I did instead was to take out these three Peacocks and put them in a holding bucket then rearranged the rockwork. I transferred the Phenos over and about 30 mins later added the Peacocks back in. Now the Peacocks thought they were the intruders into the Pheno's territory, but the Phenos were just as new, so everyone gets along.

If you take the time to choose your species properly and add them to the tank properly you can combine almost any species with success. Hope that helps! :fish: :fish: :fish:


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Thx that is really great advice, now I know how to put my new fish in w/o any prob (hopefully!). I probably wont ge them until the weekend after next so I have about 2 weeks.

What are your personal experiences w/ benga yellow, red peacocks albinos demansoni and brichardi? I dont mean all put together, i mean even as individuals, do you find this fish aggressive? shy? moody? just kind in between?


----------

