V227's Imperial Tangerine Dragon Blood Peacock

[V227]

Thought this fish would make interesting viewing and review. The Tangerine Dragon Blood peacock is an african cichlid hybrid (unknown Mbuna x unknown Peacock). I believe the only difference between the Firefish Dragon blood and the Tangerine is simply color. The "imperial" title probably due to the blue finnage.
I bought this fish about a year ago when he was a one inch ugly duckling in a display tank of 50 plus random peacock cichlid fry. His primary purpose was to be a dither fish for some of my larger South American cichlids. I bought several other types of africans for dithers but over the course of the past year have had to re-home many of them due to the South Americans deadly dominance. This particular Dragon blood is amazing. He is not aggressive by A. Cichlid standards but is a prize fighter when provoked. A stalemate has developed between the DB, now 4" long, with every other fish in the tank, including with the SA's who are twice his size. Of course every fish has a different personality, but one might consider adding the Imperial Tangerine Dragon Blood to a semi aggressive to agressive community tank.
Pictured: the DB swimming carefree between two well known killers, Red and Green Terrors.

 

[Delapool]

Nice photos!

 

[V227]

Thanks. Just my cell phone. Lights set to sunset mode. The DB is not shy and easy to photograph.

 

[Autumnsky]

That is a nice looking fish I don't know a thing about them but it has a really cool name!!! It sounds very special.

 

[V227]

Thanks. I didn't know anything about the hybrid dragon blood / firefish peacock cichlids either until i discovered this guy. I noticed that he had a slight tint of blue on his fins. Although there were several other DB fry in the LFS display tank, no others had blue fins. He is not very aggressive, but can hold his own against any other cichlid, big or small, I keep. He easily could be kept with rainbow fish, barbs or larger tetras. Unusual for an african cichlid.