I had bought some peacock cichlids about a year ago when they were juvelines, only 1 of then turned out to be female rest all were males, sunshine yellow peacocks to be precise.
after about 6-8 moths they all were showing some colouration but not enough to sex them then after seeding NLS for 1 month exclusively the males got distinguished.
My tank also has 8 fontosa of 2-5 inches, also had 1 pair of yellow lab cichlid so i never thought that any one of them can spawn easily in a community tank, but i was shocked to see the peacocks pair up, the male became hyper aggressive, even killed one other male peacock & terrorised the whole tank, the first time they spawned i did a mistake of catching my female to be sure of her holding eggs which resulted in her eating them, after about 1 month they spawed agian this time i was carefull & after much reading & advice from aquarist friend i waited for about 21 days , then caught her today, had tank water in a big bucket, stripped her of the fries, i was surprised to see about 25 free swimming fries, sadly she jumped 2 times out of the bucket killing her 2 fries rest are doing fine, i have installed a 150w heater, air stone with sponge around & some tank gravel for bacteria, i feed the crushed NLS cichlid pellets which to my surprise they ate though i had read that they may only eat live food, i bought hikari micro pellets for them but they like NLS more so will feed them that twaice, i have done 10% WC. , i heard the fries will develop enough in 2 months to be transported so m waiting for same.
One bad news can be that i may get tranferred to another town & my parents might have to care for them which wont be easy for them, i will try get some microworm started culture as i was told of feed live food.
my ques is that will microworms be a lot better than NLS? will the get some bladder disease via NLS if i feed only that? should i feed freezed-dried shrimps to them also?
after about 6-8 moths they all were showing some colouration but not enough to sex them then after seeding NLS for 1 month exclusively the males got distinguished.
My tank also has 8 fontosa of 2-5 inches, also had 1 pair of yellow lab cichlid so i never thought that any one of them can spawn easily in a community tank, but i was shocked to see the peacocks pair up, the male became hyper aggressive, even killed one other male peacock & terrorised the whole tank, the first time they spawned i did a mistake of catching my female to be sure of her holding eggs which resulted in her eating them, after about 1 month they spawed agian this time i was carefull & after much reading & advice from aquarist friend i waited for about 21 days , then caught her today, had tank water in a big bucket, stripped her of the fries, i was surprised to see about 25 free swimming fries, sadly she jumped 2 times out of the bucket killing her 2 fries rest are doing fine, i have installed a 150w heater, air stone with sponge around & some tank gravel for bacteria, i feed the crushed NLS cichlid pellets which to my surprise they ate though i had read that they may only eat live food, i bought hikari micro pellets for them but they like NLS more so will feed them that twaice, i have done 10% WC. , i heard the fries will develop enough in 2 months to be transported so m waiting for same.
One bad news can be that i may get tranferred to another town & my parents might have to care for them which wont be easy for them, i will try get some microworm started culture as i was told of feed live food.
my ques is that will microworms be a lot better than NLS? will the get some bladder disease via NLS if i feed only that? should i feed freezed-dried shrimps to them also?
