After planning to breed Peacock bass I couldn’t find any info on breeding or raising the fry so I worked on trial and error and I have put this article together for other people who want to attempt to keep and breed them.
Caring for adults
Water conditions
They are fine in average tap water conditions but they will be at their best if you provide warm, soft acidic water, which I do easily with the use of Amano Amazon soil and I keep the temp 26-30C.
Fish size and tanks
If given the right conditions whey will grow 40 to 50cm in the aquarium on average, which takes about 2-3+ years to reach their full size depending on conditions, diet, space, water conditions etc.
5cm Fry can be kept in a 2 to 3 foot aquarium; however the tank size needs to be upgraded as the fish grow. For adults the minimum tank size I would recommend is 6x2x2 for a pair of adults.
Feeding(Adults)
These fish are predators, but they can be trained to eat pellets and they will also eat frozen or live foods such as feeder fish, whitebait, prawns, and strips of fish flesh. My adults are fed primarily on pellets, they generally they wont eat live fish over 7-8cm, they especially like live shrimp and prawns as an occasional treat.
Wether live food or pellets these fish tackle food with explosive power, so you will need to keep a good check on your lids, I feed through a small gap in my lids, other wise you can end up getting wet from all the splashing. Either way keep a small towel with you during feeding its handy for mopping up water that's splashed around.
Temperament
Not normally an aggressive fish, males can sometimes be belligerent towards females, so its good to keep an eye in case of any injuries.
Breeding
My pair began breeding at approximately 2 years of age, the female was approximately 30cm and male about 35cm. The first 2 spawns were unsuccessful, it wasn’t until the 3rd that some eggs were fertilised. It takes them practice to get it right, with each spawn they get better at it. Once mature and well fed they will spawn every 2 to 3 weeks.
They will lay the eggs usually on a hard flat surface, seeming to prefer a nice rounded stone, but they will also lay on glass and wood as a second option. Best to put a large flat stone in one corner of the tank, provide a little cover around it at a distance of about 30-40cm from the stone such as drift wood or plastic plants so the female feels it's a secure area.
If they stop there spawning cycle and appear restless and indecisive I find that a small water change of about 10-15% can help trigger spawning.
The male and female will guard the eggs, fry hatch within about 3 days and become free swimming 3-4days after hatching. Be careful sometimes spawns may look infertile, but there can be many fry amongst the eggs covered in fungus. It's best to let the female sort them out, she will separate the wriggler fry and spit them into a dug out pit near the stone.
As they mature Males develop a red nuchal hump, females can get them too but not as big.
Female guarding fry
Pair Guarding eggs
Breeding spot, if the male messes around, the female will drive him away.
Raising Fry
I'm still in experiment stages with raising fry, I've had significant losses during rearing so there is massive room for improvement, but even with the losses I have managed to raise some very healthy fish using this method below.
Fry are quite delicate up to 3cm in size, after 4cm in size they seem fairly hardy and I have not experienced any losses. Also note, if the size difference between fry gets more than about 35-40%, separate any larger fry from the smaller ones, they will kill them trying to eat them, I put the larger ones in a fry saver in the same tank.
1-3weeks size 5mm to 1.5cm
Once fry are free swimming and have absorbed their yoke sacs they will take newly hatched baby brine shrimp(BBS). For the first 2 weeks I had to feed at least every hour, even with that effort some fry begin starving to death. I think part of the problem is the quantity being fed and the low nutritional value of BBS. After the first week I also begin feeding frozen BBS once every hour, for convenience purposes and they advertise they are gut packed with extra nutrition. Micro worms might be a better option; I chose not to use them because I hate the sight of them, yuck.
1 week old fry
3 week fry being fed BBS
3-6weeks size 1.5cm to 3cm
In addition to BBS I also collect mosquito egg rafts from a shallow intex pool I have setup in the shade specific for this purpose, and then feed the mosquito larvae as soon as they hatch. As the fish grow I also feed the larger mosquito larvae. I also feed newly hatch fish fry with yoke sack which get the bass growing very fast. Feed as often as possible at least every 2-3 hours.
5 week old fry being fed mosquito larvae via syringe, note the larger fry seperated in the fry saver.
Mosquito egg rafts, easy to collect cause they float, put them in a container and feed as soon as they hatch.
6-11weeks 3-6cm
At this point I start feeding mostly bloodworms and adult brine shrimp, both live and frozen (note ABS I only had success with the POS aqua brand, they spat all the other brands, a free plug for Dougo, I try to avoid mentioning brands but this is an important fact) also feed mosquito larvae and fish fry when available. Feed them at least twice a day.
12 week old fry pigging out on frozen adult Brine shrimp.
11 weeks+ 6cm+
At this point you can start experimenting with pellets, meaty carnivorous pellets are the go. Try them as a first food in the morning when they are most hungry. You may need to get the fish fat and healthy first, then starve them a little to get them hungry enough to switch over to pellets, don't try to force them onto pellets if they are small, skinny or weak looking fish.
Temps for fry, I experimented from 25 to 32C, I found the best temp to be 27-28C, lower they loose appetite, higher and their metabolism goes too fast.
A few tips in raising fry to adults, dont keep young cichla with agressive cichlid species like central Americans or Malawis etc, Cichla are generally fairly peaceful, however larger fish may bully their smaller siblings, so keep an eye out and divide problem fish if neccessary.
Anyway that's all the info I have for now, hopefully this getting shared will be a stepping stone. It's a great fish hope this info helps anyone wanting to keep and breed the real king of cichlids.
Edited by Den, 31 March 2011 - 09:59 PM.
First batch I have are at 2.5cm atm 
