Agressive, Predatory and territoral Traits

[Squidman]

I was wondering if Peacock cichlids have any of these traits. I know all cichlids have a territroal trait but are these guys very territoral?

Squidman

[Fishguy2727]

They are. How much so depends on how many males versus how many females. If you have both sexes then ideally the tank has one rock pile per group (group is one male and at least two females). Now that I have just males they chase eachother a little, but are not really territorial. When I had them setup with females you could watch and see what rock pile belonged to who.

[Coler]

aulonocara, or peacocks, have a rep for being less aggressive than mbuna. I would take this with a grain of salt as in my mixed mbuna/peacock tank the two nastiest buggers in there are not mbuna. While not considered as territorial as mbuna, they would shred any non-rift lake cichlid of similar size.

they like a little more swimming space than mbuna, and are less flexible, so need plenty of space in the rockwork to get around/through.

[Fishguy2727]

Every fish is different. My peacocks are the largest thing in the 150 and are not bothering the mbuna, the compressiceps, the jack dempseys, the oscar, the silver dollars, any of the bottom feeders, etc.

I have had peacock only tanks and mbuna only tanks. Mbunas are definitely much worse.

[Dixie]

Fishguy2727... Do you think having a really big tank is part of the reason why they get along so well? Would love to know what mbuna you have in it;) Just curious. Bet it's a beautiful tank. Do you have a pic here somewhere? Photo gallery?

[Dixie]

well duh...now I see you photobucket page and remember looking at it before. Can we say "forgetful" lol

[Fishguy2727]

I just added the mbuna. It is a white top afra. The peacocks are ignoring it but the oscar thinks it is fun to chase. The mbuna is much faster and just swims circles around him. It is like a little agile soccer player running around a football linebacker.

Tank size can have a lot to do with it. There are also no female peacocks so they have nothing to fight over.

Every tank and fish is different. Sometimes what usually works will completely fail with a certain fish.

But the peacocks have proven to me to be much less aggressive than mbunas. I can add small fish without worrying. With mbunas in an established tank you can add 5 that are bigger, rearrange everything, and feed them well before you add the new guys and they can still end up killing all the new guys.

[fishy girl]

fishguy2727 can I put mbuna and oscars together, or peacocks and oscars in a 100 gallon. a little color would be nice and if so can they also go with green terrors and such. Not sure?

[Fishguy2727]

I wouldn't recommend it. I do, but I can also remove them at any time if I need to. It also takes a bit of experience to determine what is play, what is figuring each other out, what is true aggression, and when it is time to remove a fish before they are too beaten up.

It can be done. The best way is to start them all off young together and let them grow up together. If you want to do it I would do peacocks and an oscar. Start the peacocks first then get an oscar a litttle later that is about the same size.

It is a borderline topic and many will tell you flat out no. The water parameters are too different, they have different body language that they cannot interpret, dietary issues, etc. I feed all my fish New Life Spectrum because it is truly complete and balanced for all fish. I have not seen anything that says they can't understand eachother. And pH is fine as long as it is not very extreme and it is stable. My tap is well water that is pretty hard. This is good for the rift lake cichlids and oscars can tolerate it (actually thrive in it). So far mine are doing fine, but this could easily change as the oscar exceeds the others in size. Oscars are very neat fish, but there are many Lake Malawi cichlids that are similar in size (open water haps/piscivores) that may be a better option.

[Coler]

fishguy2727 can I put mbuna and oscars together, or peacocks and oscars in a 100 gallon. a little color would be nice and if so can they also go with green terrors and such. Not sure?

nope.

never say never, as each fish is different, but your first problem here is the water parameters. Oscars & GT's like soft acidic water and peacocks prefer a hard alkaline set up. That said, most fish will adjust to stable parameters.

What you run up against most likely in this mix is that if you say put one peacock in, it will probably get nailed by the O or the GT. If you stock the Peacocks in the correct ratios, they will probably be too much for the O/GT - Malawi/Tanganyikan aggression is a whole other world to your usual cichlid behaviour.

But, some people have success mixing south/central americans; it just wouldn't be good practice to reccomend the mix as likely a good one.

[kitten3326]

Thanks for clearing that up