well without seeing the tail i cant say absolutely that its not a peacock, but if it has no eye spots back there then no, its not. back when i started with spiny eels i did a lot of research on them, reminds of one called a zebra spiny eel, sorry, cant remember the latin name. but if it is a zebra it should stay smaller than even the peacocks. personally id like this fish. its something different, i love peacock eels but i just see them so much ya know. might be a good buy, how much do they want for it?