# Peacock breeding questions? Help me solidify my point.



## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

When it comes to peacocks how do you know what kind of peacock the females are? Is it just a free for all when it comes to breeding them?


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## amakayov (Sep 2, 2010)

the females of the peacocks should look relatively similar to the males. Usually they are a duller color, like white or gray instead of blue or red... Ex. My "Deep Water Hap" is a beautiful blue color, while the two females are white with black bars. The male and females have the same colors on the dorsal fin and the same type of vertical black bars, like they fade in the same places... My "Taiwan Reef" male and female have the same red stripe tip in the dorsal fine, but the female is gray with dark bars instead of having the blue head and red body... 
So the males and females of a species will have similarities, granted they obviously dont look the same, but once you have them, you realize how similar they really are. If you want to breed them, you want to make sure you have the same species, because sometimes the different species may not be able to breed together, or you will end up with hybrids which are worthless. They may be pretty and attractive to you, but chances are, no one is going to want to buy a half-breed...

-Amanda


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

chronotrigger said:


> When it comes to peacocks how do you know what kind of peacock the females are? Is it just a free for all when it comes to breeding them?


You buy from a vendor you trust. The vendor sells pure peacock females with scientific names and collection points, and he keeps them separated and carefully labeled. And so do you.

Once they are mixed, I am unable to trust that the vendor can ID them correctly. So IMO once they are mixed, they are unsellable. I actually did buy peacock juveniles from a mixed tank before I knew better. The vendor was certain he could ID the ones I wanted. When they matured they looked like several different species and some hybrid mixes.

You also may want to avoid mixing peacock species in a tank because they crossbreed. All male if you want multiple species, or one species per tank if you want to breed.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

I agree with DJ.

In the wild, different species of peacocks inhabit different regions of the lake or different depths of water or habitats (e.g. sandy vs. rocky) within a region. Thus, they do not typically interact with other species of peacocks.

Two different peacock species in an aquarium will crossbreed - almost 100% of the time.


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## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

I guess I can't have my cake and eat it too. I believe we have 5 unidentified female peacocks in the dowstairs tank mixed with 3-5 different kinds of male peacocks. In "my" upstairs tank I have four unidentified female peacocks mixed with1-3 different kinds of male peacocks. Included are some pictures of my peacocks from upstairs. Any ideas? Ya'll are saying that different species of the same genus can interbreed (peacock or not.) Can fish from different genus interbreed? Everyone has been such great help. -Thanks-

the 2 smaller (1-2in.)
















the 2 larger (2.5-3in.) one allready holding, both seem to have an orange tipped spiney fin
















again


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## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

The one on bottom is a kind of hap I believe. The one to the left is a kind of hap too I believe. They're both my roomate Tye's fish (soon to be moving out, fish that is.) The second picture is what I believe to be a blue dolphin. Is that a kind of peacock? Pictured in the third picture is the "hap" from the left of the first photo. The only other fish not pictured that might be a peacock is my quarantined fish. I'll get a picture of him too.


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## amakayov (Sep 2, 2010)

well, the first pic looks almost identical to my female taiwan reef... only it doesnt have the red tipped dorsal fin from what I can see... The blue one in the last picture on the first post is quite beautiful... I wanna say it is a Frontosa? Not sure on either, but I do believe that is what they look like...


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## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

Yes it is a frontosa. I should have specified it was the fish in the background I was talking about. It's the same female holding from the first picture.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Any mouthbrooders can crossbreed. Peacock-peacock is common. Peacock-hap is known to happen, especially a combination like peacock-fryeryi. Was that your question?


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## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

To start I have 4 OB peacock males. One is at least a third smaller than the others, and I think I barely see egg spots. I think this one is the least dominant of the four, or could it be a female? Do OB females have the OB pattern, or do they look like all the the other peacock females? For example- I was thinking that I could have "say" four OB peacock males in a tank with around 8 females. But what you're saying is that other cichlids of different genus may be similar enough in body shape, size, etc. (from what I briefly gathered in the archives and from what you just stated) to interbreed. So pretty much like you said DJ, you should go with either all males or only one species. That is unless you had species together that were so unlike in size, shape, etc. to where they couldn't interbreed. And I guess that's when you run into aggression, etc.? I really don't know what do do about breaking up my fish upstairs. I have nowhere to seperate them. Aggression levels appear too be pretty low, but I'll keep a close eye on them.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

OB Peacocks are the result of mixed genus hybridization. Egg spots are not indicative of gender. I don't see any OB Peacocks in your pictures, but I do see a bunch of fish that already are hybrids, so seperating them is a mute point now. Just don't save any fry from the tank, or if you want breeding fish, you should start all over again with stocking. Sometimes the body shape doesn't even have to be that similar.


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## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

Could you enlighten me as to which ones? I believe I have four insignis pro. that are too small to sex. The 5 Copadichromis borleyi Kadango are too young too sex. There are two female and a male nyerei. 3 compressicep hap. of which all three are too young too sex. The two frontosa are also too small. I believed the small blue fish to be a hap. moori. Do you believe any of those to be mutts or is it my peacocks (female?,male?, or both?) Is my orange/blue male a yellow morph of Aulonocara jacobfreibergi? Just saw it on Wik. and thought is looked similar. This is a very interesting hobby, and I appreciate all the info everyone has given.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Outside of the frontosa, I don't see any fish that are likely pure.


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## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

Do you know if any of the other species I mentioned interbreed? Other than the peacocks.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Most of them can, and will interbreed, given a lack of the correct females.


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## chronotrigger (Sep 5, 2010)

I should be able to get an 140 gallon tank. The comp. won't interbreed will they? Okay. You're saying if I give them a good harem of pretty girls to tend to they shouldn't stray? That makes sense. Thank you.


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