Surprise single male peacock gave birth to youngs

[tiger15]

I have two Aulonocara / Jacobfriebergi male that surprisingly held eggs. One is in a tank without any other Malawian cichlid. The other in a tank with saulosi MBUNA but no other aulonocara. From the color they are displaying, they look male to me. To my surprise, without a mate or no other aulonocara in the tank, both appeared to hold eggs, not eating and showed chewing action. I thought they might be sick and couldnt be holding eggs. One lost the holding after two weeks and resumed eating. The other was still holding so I took him out to examine what he was holding . To my surprise, 20 babies came out that look like legitimate aulonocara fry. I’ll raise them to see what they are. It’s double mystery to me that male could hold eggs without female and without any other Malawian cichlid in one tank to hybridize

 

[danotaylor]

This looks to be a female. Have you vented it?


The other looks potentially female as well. Vented it?

 

[newworld]

Looks like a female then again its a mix…

 

[tiger15]

I vented it and it does look like a female with hind hole larger than the front hole. But the color of the fish is too colorful to be a female. I had aulonocara many times before and the female had no color, just grey. It looks more like MBUNA in that female is equally colorful. This cannot explain why my other aulonocara held eggs for two weeks without any other Malawian in the tank to cross fertile the eggs. Can it be a self cloning female?

 

[newworld]

Its a hybrid that bred w another malawi cichlid, much like how it was created, seems very reasonable, its not a male that bred by itself and created fry…come on