African Cichlids

[mollyluvr]

Is anyone familiar with the technical name of the "purple peacock"? I know he is a Malawi cichlid. My husband just got one for his tank and he seems to be doing well, but I can't seem to find him in any book or find out anything about him.

[Allivymar]

Hrmm. There isn't any Malawi cichlid with a formal name of "Purple Peacock" that I know of or can locate. It may be a local name.

My guess is its either a:

Purple Mbuna: http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...ame=vermivorus

Emperor Cichlid: http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...esname=nyassae (click the teeny google link for pics)

or a Flavescent peacock: http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...e=stuartgranti

Good luck and let us know!

[mollyluvr]

It is very similar to the Aulocanara stuartgranti, but it is a very pale purple with dark purple stripes. The owner of my [acronym:82a056f2ca="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:82a056f2ca] called him "purple peacock" but I had not heard of that before either. Perhaps a different coloration of the stuartgranti or maybe he has not gotten his full coloring, he is only about 1.5". Thanks for your help.

[shawmutt]

It may be one of the many "mutt" cichlids available. Many species will crossbreed making many different colorations. Ever see a bunch of cichlids in your [acronym:437c5d2798="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:437c5d2798] labeled simply "assorted african cichlids"? Those are the mutts.

[Terry]

In a lot of stores the reason that they put Assorted malawi's is because there are so many morph's of on type of fish it is getting harder to tell them apart. It might just be a case that he is just developing his colours, I might be wrong in this but i think that with Aulonocara and with some Haplocromis species they are born the same colour as the female and then the males start to get there striking colours from about 1"-1.5", maybe yours is just starting his colour change.

[Voodoo Chilli]

The same type of Aulonocara can look different due to geographical variations. I have A. baenschi "Benga Yellow", which shows differences from other A. baenschi. There are too many types of peacocks in the stuartgranti complex to guess what it is exactly- any way you could post a pic of it?