Overaggressive peacock

[howmanyds]

It was my understanding that peacocks were a little more peaceful than mbuna, so I thought I could undertake the project of sexing a half dozen males or so out of a group of 19, even as a beginner.

I was wrong. The 19 were all sizes from 1" to nearly 3" when I got them. Obviously the largest colored up first, then the second one colored up. A month or so into owning them, though, I had lost three of the medium sized and three of the smallest, presumably to bullying?

I sectioned off the two males onto 1/3 of the tank, and within a week the next male colored up on the big side. When I put him in with the other two, it was clear 1/3 of a 75g was not big enough for three 3" male aulonocara, even with the rocks and hiding places. So with a bit of effort, I pulled out the three, herded the 8 females and unknowns (1 more had disappeared and the 4th male had colored up so I left him on the big side) onto the small side, and put the three males onto the big side with the one who stayed.

With tons of rocks, caves, tunnels, and hiding spots, I thought the males would be fine, but the dominant blue cobwe has marked the entire 50 gallons as his territory. Since this morning my number 2 male has been missing (he was a gorgeous flavescent - I'm really sad) and the cobwe has been unrelentingly chasing the other two until they find big enough shells to hide in. He's even nipping at my tanganyikans, which he has never bothered before: pearl occies, julies, and a compressiceps. I added the next beginning-to-color male from the small side hoping to disperse the aggression, but I did so thinking it was a death sentence.

What to do? I love my peacocks, but this one is going to kill all of them!

 

[howmanyds]

Look at all the hiding spots!

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Are they all one species? If so there lies your problem. A male will only tolerate so much.

 

[howmanyds]

No. I started with 3 Lwanda, which are a kind of jake I believe, 3 stuart cobwe, 3 stuart usisya, 3 baenschi, 3 waylandi, and 3 saulosi. I added a ruby/German red later, which also is a stuartgranti if I read correctly.

It's hard to say what's left now that six are buried in the garden and two are MIA. Speaking of which, where could these guys go? Each of the missing ones were at least 2.5", closer to 3". When I was herding the female/juvie group to the smaller side of the partition I had to take down my rock creation down to the three feet. At that time there was just 1 MIA but we couldn't find him. Could my 3 dwarf petricola (1.5") have gobbled him up? Could he be buried in the sand? The top is closed all the time.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

No. I started with 3 Lwanda, which are a kind of jake I believe, 3 stuart cobwe, 3 stuart usisya, 3 baenschi, 3 waylandi, and 3 saulosi. I added a ruby/German red later, which also is a stuartgranti if I read correctly. It's hard to say what's left now that six are buried in the garden and two are MIA. Speaking of which, where could these guys go? Each of the missing ones were at least 2.5", closer to 3". When I was herding the female/juvie group to the smaller side of the partition I had to take down my rock creation down to the three feet. At that time there was just 1 MIA but we couldn't find him. Could my 3 dwarf petricola (1.5") have gobbled him up? Could he be buried in the sand? The top is closed all the time.

Alright sounds like you just got some aggressive ones. You petricola could defiantly have picked him apart after he was killed.

 

[howmanyds]

Petricola that small leaving NO remains?

 

[howmanyds]

I flipped the light on while everyone was sleeping to discover my missing #2 (Flavescent I think) who's been hiding for at least 16 hours!

But, boy is he tattered, poor guy! Each and every fin is ripped multiple times.

Maybe he'll do better now that there are six peacocks on this side?

 

[LaCichlids318]

I have a male just like yours shown in the first pic and I to am a beginner peacock guy switching from mbuna. Mine like that is also VERY aggressive even chasing my 5" haps, I thought mine was just being cocky since he's only 2-3" but maybe they are just aggressive? It makes me want to quarantine mine now knowing its not just mine doing it.

 

[Rivers2k]

This worked for me. I quarantined my overly aggressive male in a 5 gallon bucket and let another male rise up as the dominant in the tank creating a new hierarchy. After 3 days I reintroduced the dominant male int a dark tank. There was a new pecking order now. I think it has been a week or a week and a half and no problems from the one that was overly aggressive.

The problem you have that I don't is you have some females so that is going to make every more nasty.

 

[howmanyds]

My tattered #2 is still swimming around this morning. Perhaps the additional smaller males presence (now 6 in all on this side of the tank) really did help to diffuse the aggression.

I think also that even though the females are all out of reach, they're still putting hormones into the water, so once they're all gone the cobwe might settle down.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Peacocks are typically civil, except in the presence of females even if the females are different species expect them to get a little nuts.

 

[howmanyds]

I have one mature 3" female stuartgranti. Would removing just her help or will the presence of even the 2-2.5" females still cause male sexual anxiety?

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Any females are gonna make them a bit nippy ime

 

[howmanyds]

Figured out the cause of the aggressiveness -- the smallest "male" on the big side of my partition was actually a female. I've been watching him/her since I placed her on the male side, thinking those chin spots were male-ish. I guess not.

Anyway, a week ago, the aggressiveness from the big blue daddy-o abated just a tad -- still chasing, but less nipping -- and the smallest one retreated to a cave where she's been for days now, seldom coming out.

Yup, she's holding.

I'm really surprised since she's only 2" and I wasn't prepared for that. And as exciting as it is to have MY FIRST EVER HOLDING PEACOCK, I wasn't ever planning to breed the peacocks in my tank and thus don't even know what species of aulonocara she is.
The plan was to have only male peacocks to keep their temperaments in check -- now I feel bad to have accidentally possibly crossed breeds.

Best laid plans...

But the kids were pretty excited when I pointed out the extended chin and told them why she's hiding.