Red German Chiclids

[R.A.C.K]

I just bought a red german peacock from the fish store and it came with it's female counterpart. The guy at the store talked like it was the easiest thing in the world for them to breed and before I new it I'd have tons of fish. But I still have my doubts and questions so I thought I'd ask them here.

Number 1: What do I need to do to make them breed?

Things like water temp, substrate, ph. Do those things matter?

How old do they need to be?

Will I need to protect the fry somehow?

What do you feed the fry if they do hatch?

And anything else you kind people might want to share.

My end hope is to be able to sell them back and maybe break even on food or something.

 

[Blue2Fyre]

They are pretty easy to breed.
Most malawi peacocks like a temp of about 75-80°F, sand substrate and some rocks. They are a riftlake species so usually they prefer hard water with high Ph. I keep mine at 8.2 but really they can adjust to just about anything. Adding limestone of texas holey rock can help keep the PH high.
I'm not sure how old they need to be to breed. I would say at least 3" long. Peacocks take a while to mature. Also you will want more females. You can breed them in pairs but they don't form pairs, they are actually harem breeders.
Peacocks are mouth brooders. Once the eggs are fertilized the females will pick them up and hold them for up to 3 weeks. Once they are spit they are fully formed and free swimming. They will usually take crushed flakes right away. You can strip fry early(I would wait at least 2 weeks) and raise them yourself. They are really easy to take care of.
As for selling them you will have to grow them up a bit since males take a while to color up. People in my area usually end up with so many fry they become feeders.

 

[R.A.C.K]

Right now I just have crushed coral on the bottem. Should I lay down some sand?

 

[Blue2Fyre]

Nah crushed coral will be fine. It won't hurt them to not have sand. They just like to dig.