OB Cichlid

[Pez]

My friend gave me a male Orange Blotch Peacok who was an agressive fish in his tank I now have him in my 40 gallon. by himself is there any other fish that could go in the tank or should I just keep him in there solo. Thanks Pez

[Music Master]

Im trying to research them now. If im not mistaken they are a mbuna type cichlid, and would best go with other mbunas at the same level of aggression. I will try and do further research.

Ok I found out that it is a hybrid offspring of a peacock cichlid, and a mbuna cichlid.

I have found this site on another thread, and thought it may be of use to you. Here it is [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Pez]

Thanks alot I have been looking them up also They are very intersting lookin fish , but would another fish have to be as agressive as him to survive in the tank ? Male or female ? Pez

[Music Master]

I think that if they have the same level of agression, they would have less of a chance of fighting, since they both know eachothers bounds. Another thing you could do is to get two females for him. He would most likley mate with one of them.

[Fishguy2727]

The best options are either other male peacocks of about the same size or two or three females of breeding size.

I have not seen conclusive evidence proving that all OB peacocks are from mbuna-peacock crosses from long ago (if someone has some please share). And considering all the cichlids of Lake Malawi are descended from one single species it is possible that they have the OB gene in them somewhere. so I would not worry too much about them being mbuna crosses or not. By all physical traits they look like pure peacocks, and their behavior supports this as well, in my experience.

[kaybee]

OB peacocks are hybrids of mbuna and peacock lineage and are essentially 'man-made' (i.e., there are no wild caught OB peacocks). In my opinion, if you eventually intend to breed malawi cichlids (mbuna or peacock), having an OB peacock (or any other malawi hybrid, for that matter) in the tank might be risky or even undesirable (from a breeding stand point).

However, disregarding the hybrization potential, any mbuna or peacock may work (you'll probably want to select fish from just one of those groups, peacocks would probably be the appropriate group to select from), though a 40gal is on the small side, so you may also want to refrain from obtaining aggressive species if deciding on mbunas..

What ever you do add, introduce new malawi's in groups (3+).

Edit: what other species was the OB kept with when your friend had it?

[Fishguy2727]

Where did you get that information from?
Are there any actual scientific articles to support this?

Not being found in the wild does not mean they are definitely hybrids. Many things only show up in captivity only because on the rare occasions they do show up in the wild (albino for example), they either cause the individual to be eaten, spotted (can't catch prey if it sees you), or are too different and are not selected by potential mates. These things are super rare or effectively never occur in the wild, but in captivity these mutants do fine or are even favored simply for being different.

I am not saying it is definitely not the case, just looking for some actual facts to support it.

[kaybee]

This should probably be in a separate thread of its own, but...

The Orange-Blotch (OB) characteristic is a mbuna trait which is passed down to hybrid progeny such as OB peacocks and is not a naturally occuring recessive gene characteristic as albinism is.

While a negligible quantity may potentially exist in the lake (since peacock x mbuna hybridization in the wild, though unlikely, is not impossible), OB peacocks have never been collected and exported from the lake or found in particular collection points in Lake Malawi (as all other lake malawi cichlids, particularly mbuna's and peacocks, have been).

'OB' hybrids aren't limited to just peacocks; they can be created by crossing OB mbunas with haps (with the progeny being the OB 'malawi eye biter' or OB 's. fryeri' which can also be found in certain LFS's). To create an OB peacock, one crosses a OB mbuna species (metriaclima and/or labeotropheus sp.) with one of the above and then cross it back with the peacock. Being hybrids, though, there is no 'set' formula. One OB peacock can have an entirely different origin 'make up' than another.

If you're looking for a scientific article 'proving' that OB peacocks are aquarium-created fish, you probably won't find any. Dr. Michael K. Oliver [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] has claimed that the OB peacock is an "artifical hybrid Malawi cichlid", though not in a expressed in a scientific article.

For the most part scientific articles dealing with Lake Malawi cichlids are in the context of the cichlids in their natural environment, and their behavior and/or diversification within that environment (an environment in which the OB peacock is apparently absent from).

Issues like the origins of OB peacocks, line-bred peacocks, line-bred labidochromis sp. hongi (SRT), or the background of why 'red'-morph male m. estherae are overwhelmly common in the hobby yet exceptionally rare in the wild, yet the opposite is the the case with blue-morph male m. estherae, etc, are more in the realm of the hobby and aren't likely to be chronicled or documented in scientific articles.

And, while not at the scientific article 'level', OB peacocks are acknowledged/considered/viewed/recognized as hybrids by several aquarium societies either as "man-made" fish and specifically as mbuna-peacock hybrids.

[Fishguy2727]

Yes, but more common in mbunas means no more than the trait is more common in mbunas. That far from proves that peacocks do not naturally possess the gene. It simply means that if peacocks carry it, it is very rare.

Aquarium Societies believing it also does not prove it, only that they too are on board to believing it is a hybrid, this is far from scientific evidence that it is actually non-existant in wild peacocks.

My point is that since they all come from the same species, the peacocks could have it, just that it is rarer and the frequency of expression is therefore much lower.

With a complete lack of proof I find it hard to stand so firmly on one side based simply on other people assuming it and repeating it.

[Pez]

A bit of a stir I caused with this thread, but he was kept with other peacocks the exact ones I am not sure, maybe I will just take him to the LFS and trade him in , the 40 gallon is kind of small for him and 3 new ones of his size. He is very cool looking fish if I keep him he definetly needs some sort of company in the tank so we will see. Thnks for all the informative info.. PEZ