Okay, here's my little bit of experience with Peacocks and Brichardi over the past year, for what it's worth. I started them all as small, 1 to 2 inches, dep. on species. One pair of Brichardi, locally bred; 2 pair of Taiwan Reefs, and 5 OB peacocks, not old enough to sex. Put in a 55g, sand/crushed shell/pea gravel substrate, creek rock everywere, lots of plastic and silk plants with bunches of Anacharis for munching.
It didn't take the Brichardi long to take over half of the tank--they had taken a cave/giant plant combo. Whenever a peacock wandered into their territory, they'd chase it away. It was astonishing to see such small fish run off the growing others. Brichardi have very small teeth in the front, two top, two bottom. Never saw them bite or body contact. The have a rich taupe color, with masks of black and blue with a reddish-orange dot. Gray? Haven't seen any Neolamprologus in a gray--might be in poor water or just not happy. Mine are still small, so they have the 10g to themselves, with a cave, jungle of water sprite, and sand/gravel/shell substrate they industriously move.
The Peacocks started to develop color--Taiwan Reefs at first. The dominant male went full throttle, whereas the other just hung around hanging out with the OB's, gaining enough color and size to show gender, and only colored up when he felt bold. All four, male and female, are still with me. The females are a lovely silvery with black vertical stripes.
The OB's are, as I finally found in research (sold as "Peacocks" and had correct physique), a hybrid of Peacock and Mbuna. Random, it seems. I lucked out with having a beautifully colored, large full-bodied male and 4 females. I don't personally mind hybrids, have had a couple mules, and prefer mixed breed dogs, but I don't think it's a good thing for the general fish-hobby industry. Much has been written and argued in various forums about hybrids, from Blood-Red Parrots to random species mixing in tank with accidental breeding. Mine have had one spawing that produced 7 babies; one female was harassed to death; adults have since all acquired a taste for fresh-spit fry, so none have survived since, and that's fine with me as I'd rather acquire another tank for my BGK and Madagascan Paratilapia--they'll get huge. BTW, in the wild, research has shown that species stick to their own, and there is no "let it be" per interbreeding.
It's interesting to see how these young hybrids are growing up in terms of body shape, eyes, coloration, etc., but I WOULD NEVER give them away or sell. They have really taken on the 2 distinct characteristcs of both species--spit by an OB female. I do have a random peacock female sold to me as a Sunset Peacock--at 1" she had color, looked like a male, but au contraire, mon ami, she looks exactly the same as an adult. Sticks out like a sore thumb--I really, really don't like pink--but she's in my care.
Sorry this rambled on, but I was just trying to hit both topics--Brichardi with Peacocks, and Peacocks in general. You could do an overcrowded tank with tons of rockwork and do a single species Peacock tank with 3 males and 3 females for each, with a total of 12 fish (or more, depending on tank size) with hopes that the overcrowding will reduce aggression. Alot of cichlid keepers seem to do this. The Peacocks are relatively peaceful, but when the males are in "full bloom," they'll run those females ragged. I nicknamed my dominant Taiwan Reef "Horn Dog" due to his gallantry.
