Question abuot sunshine peacocks

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AngelThoughts

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Aug 27, 2003
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Well I got my tank cycled after a month and a half and ready to go and the lfs that specializes in cichlids sent me home w/two sunshine peacocks. How do you tell what sex they are? One of them is larger, a much brighter yellow and the other is darker with more dark striping on the sides and smaller.
I am not sure that they will be comfortable in my 36g bowfront . What do you think? I don't have anything else in there as they ate 7 of my 8 white clouds that I used to cycle with. (I managed to save the last one )
Any suggestions on stocking this tank and wether or not I should keep the peacocks? Thanks!
 
The larger, more colorful peacock is probably the male. The females are much more drab with very little color. I think the best way to sex peacocks is by a process called "venting". Unfortunately, I can't describe the process to you, but you might be able to find an article if you search for it.
 
Yes, the male is colorful the female is drab with the vertical lines. The male takes time to reach its full coloration but its worth it. Thats a small tank but at least that pecock is a smaller one and is quite passive. I'd get a couple more females and thats about it. For a tank that small your better off with some of the smaller mbuna. At least you'll get more color. The electric yellow (2-3) and something blue maybe one of them would look good. Check out cichlid-forum.com for more info. You really need a bigger tank though. A few fish wil even out grow that tank.
 
Yes, in peacocks the male developes color and the females remain the drab brown color. So the one oyu have with color is the male and if the other one is brown i would think it would be the female but could also be a sub dominate male, is there any color on the drab fish?
 
The more I read the more i am finding my LFS sold me some fish that will grow to be way to big for such a small tank. And she's trying to sell me other fish that I know will get just as big.

Valerie, the smaller one does have some yellow, very little. It's smaller and the stripes are much darker and more dark gray.

Should I take the fish back? NOt sure what to do :( I dont want an overcrowded tank or unhappy fish. THanks for the advice!
 
I personally dont' like recommending that peacocks(or mbuna) be kept in tanks smaller then a 55g. Not sure the dimensions of a 36g but peacocks are open water swimmers and like a larger tank and open areas.

If both your peacocks have yellow coloring they are probably both males.Females should have no coloring or only a very smaller amount(like a lite tint to the fins if any). Its best ot keep peacocks in trio or larger groups.
 
The peacocks will work in that tank. I was just saying that if you got mbuna at least the males and females are colorful. Thats all. You get more bang for your buck! You could also consider adding another male peacock to help out in the color dept. A few small dithers could work too. Most cichlids need more space than your average tropical due to their aggressive nature. If they spark your interest enough you may be inspired to buy a bigger tank?
 
You could also consider adding another male peacock to help out in the color dept.
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adding mroe male peacocks won't really help. The dominate male will have great color and all the sub dominate males will onyl show a bit of color(will vary depending on his rank). The is probably why he has a male with lots of color already and one that looks like a female(brown with a bit of yellow).

Sometimes all male peacock tanks work but i have seen a couple where most of them weren't showing great color. I find its best to get 1 male and 2-3 females. The male will show beautiful color. If you have a larger tank you might even be able to get away with 2 males and enough females.
 
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