Aggression issues... from my Peacock?

No clue. Maybe cuz you're on the dark side. Ditch the Africans

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In my experience with peacocks and haps --- more caves equals more fighting. They become more territorial. So I took out all the caves. Aggression subsided.

I left some big rocks to break 'line of sight'. Chasing and aggression can hardly be eliminated.

I also had to take out when chasing gets to the point that the aggressor is chasing to kill. The fish doing the chasing is out of here.

Any ideas short of removing fish?

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The truth is, not really. Once one male targets another or once two males target each other the outcome is usually one of them ends up dead. You're seeing the warning signs of what to a lot of people would be a mystery death or what they might think is a sudden case of bloat, because they miss the fact that when one male starts suddenly hanging in a corner it's most often because another is out to kill it.

What you're seeing is actually common with peacocks-- I kept and bred them for years. They can be far more aggressive than some people think, depending on the individual fish and on the situation in a tank. Two dominant males or two males looking to be dominant or a dominant male targeting another male it doesn't want in its space and one will almost inevitably kill the other at some point-- and when you see one hanging like that it's a warning that it's likely coming pretty soon. Lot of peacock deaths blamed on bloat actually start with stress from aggression, what people see is a fish that starts hanging in a corner, stops eating, eventually develops some of the symptoms of bloat (if it lives that long) and they don't make the connection to another belligerent male in the tank. (the major cause of bloat in peacocks is overfeeding or allowing an individual fish to overeat even if the tank as a whole isn't being overfed)

Peacock males vary widely in temperament, more so in some species than others, but you will occasionally get an individual that is psycho aggressive, it gets worse if there are females in the tank, but when you get one like that sometimes all you can do is move him to a tank with fish he can't bully.

Other possible solutions-- What will sometimes work is having a larger, more dominant fish to boss or police the tank. I've actually used green terrors like this in African tanks, have had big male GTs that kept order and would even break up fights between peacocks. Or if you have just the two males, you may do better with a number of male peacocks of same or similar species. But once on starts hanging in a corner your time and options are limited.

Just to clarify-- when I say above have 'a number of peacocks of same or similar species' I mean as opposed to having just two males that look similar to each other. Naturally, you can also have a mix of males of different species peacocks, but if you have two of a single species or two males that look similar (or sometimes two males, period) as opposed to several, there's more chance of aggression between them. Just their tendency, not a rule in every case, since it depends on the individual fish, tank setup, other fish in the tank, whether there are females in the mix, etc.

...When you see profiles of peacocks that say they're peaceful or 'mildly' aggressive this can be misleading. The reason is that aggression is relative and varies with a number of factors (not least of which is whether there are females in the tank), so an average peacock may be 'mildly' aggressive compared to some highly aggressive mbuna species, or mildly aggressive in a tank with more dominant fish, but this doesn't mean they aren't aggressive. Occasionally you can get an individual male psycho killer-- or might have one be very aggressive in a tank he can bully but not be so bad in a different tank.

Get a group of clown loaches !!

Strange, but the biggest clown in the tank --- around 5 inches, had taken the role of 'peacekeeper' in the tank.

In my 125 gallon tank, the tank boss is a 7 inch male Cyrtocara Blue Dolphin Moorii. He is a great tank boss as he is not mean, but no fish will challenge him in the tank ---- except the clown loach.

Now the sub-dominant Cyrtocara Blue Moorii is a psycho. He is a bit smaller than the dominant one. Late in the afternoon he will start chasing everyone in the tank except the King. He will chase them, but not really hurting them....kinda like a game for him.

But when the chasing gets to a point that most fish get agitated, the clown loach will start chasing this psycho Blue Dolphin. Loaches are great swimmers. This loach will go on the side of the Moorii and stick to him like a fly....to the point this will force the psycho Moorii to the corner. Then the loach will leave him alone, then relative peace comes back.

I recently took out a female Blue Dolphin. I really believe that this dolphin was a she-male....as she challenged every male peacock and haps in the tank. She was a real meany as she will chase the other Blue Dolphin female and hit them. That was when I said --- you are out of here.

Once I took her out, the fighting between the Blue Dolphin subsided a lot.

Oh yes, the clown loach will also put that meany she-male in her/his place once her/his fins turned all black from anger !!

Strange behavior from a loach...but i love it !!

How many peacocks you have in the 75G? Usually overstocking is the key to minimize targeted fish.