Crazy peacock!!

[howmanyds]

During a water change this evening I noticed one of my Usisyas had a tail sticking out of his mouth - it was one of my tanganyikan shellies, a 1" pearly occelatus, and he was stuck! The peacocks haven't paid an iota of attention to these little shellies in six months. What could have caused this? The abnormal water change time in the evening under the blue lights instead of the typical afternoon PWC? They were fed a few hours ago so there's obviously no food floating around still.

I managed to catch the peacock by hand (he seemed as surprised by his mistake as I was) and extract the little sucker who's now in the protective breeder box. Hopefully the stress won't kill him by morning.

 

[CichlidLady0312]

During a water change this evening I noticed one of my Usisyas had a tail sticking out of his mouth - it was one of my tanganyikan shellies, a 1" pearly occelatus, and he was stuck! The peacocks haven't paid an iota of attention to these little shellies in six months. What could have caused this? The abnormal water change time in the evening under the blue lights instead of the typical afternoon PWC? They were fed a few hours ago so there's obviously no food floating around still.

I managed to catch the peacock by hand (he seemed as surprised by his mistake as I was) and extract the little sucker who's now in the protective breeder box. Hopefully the stress won't kill him by morning.

I would add a dose of stress coat for the shellie.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Peacocks will eat anything that fits in their mouth. It much have seen the opportunity and taken it. This is why it's not usually recommended to mix tang shellies with Malawian peacock, mbuna, haps or Victorian haps, or larger tangs

 

[howmanyds]

Funny that only one out of 18 peacocks have so much as looked at a shellie once in seven months. Just lucky, I guess.

Anyway, the little guy is swimming around great today, no worse for wear, thankfully.

 

[mikem691]

I know several members on here gave you advice on your stock and suggested shellys in your set up but IMO they should be in a species only tank. How ever I saw you did an awesome job of sectioning off your tank. I was following along but never said to leave the shellys out because I only had experience with multis and felt they had more experiance. Hopefully you have no more problems and the peacock that got a taste didn't like it.

 

[howmanyds]

Yes, I definitely got advice on both sides of the mixing peacocks with tangs of any kind argument, both on this forum and elsewhere. I decided to go for it because I have a hard time telling myself 'no'.

But it's been an altogether successful experiment. My only real disaster (not quite a disaster, but it did cause an upsetting number of fishy burials) was not separating the female peacocks from the males earlier. They went to town on each other, not on the tanganyikans.

Other than that my only losses have been from a couple cases of parasites, over-feeding of my eretmodus (I was warned, too! I'm so kicking myself), and having fish shipments arrive late, one with cooked fish last summer, and one with frozen fish this winter. Oh yeah, and from an initial histeria of my wild-caught eel when he was first put in and tail-nipped until being put in isolation. He's now been on the loose for four months and never causes trouble. He's everyone's favorite.

 

[fishyfriends3]

Never mix lakes in my opinion.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[molliwopp]

Considering your peacocks are still juvis once they grow large and being more territorial you might have afew loses. I would remove your shellys.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[howmanyds]

Maybe by then my son will want to put all the shellies in his room. I'll consider that.

On the other hand, everything I've seen and heard has pointed towards an all-male group of peacocks not being very aggressive or territorial with anybody.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Maybe by then my son will want to put all the shellies in his room. I'll consider that.

On the other hand, everything I've seen and heard has pointed towards an all-male group of peacocks not being very aggressive or territorial with anybody.

Unfortunately there's a difference between aggressive/territorial and a food instinct. These fish will make a snack out of anything they can in the wild, like occasional insects, crustaceans, and fry, although its not their normal diet. They will try and eat anything that will fit in their mouth and are very opportunistic