12 replies to this topic

[Dr_Pat]

I got a couple of Juvie dragon bloods when I first set the tank up to "test the water". All was a success and they've been living/growing happily for the last ~10 months. There's some Electric Yellow that have bred quite successfully in the tank and I wanted to know if I've got a pair of dragon bloods or whether I need to buy some more fish so that they might do the same.

Thanks for the help

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[Salpon]

I've found that tangerine peacocks (aka dragonblood etc) can be a lot more difficult to sex than other peacocks (possibly because they're not actually aulonocara). The females can be quite colourful compared to the drab grey/brown of almost all the other females. But it looks like two males you've got there. The first pic is a bit hard to make out but looks like a pinkish male. If they have egg spots they're almost definitely male, although tangerines dont always have obvious egg spots.

Also I might be selling my breeding pair of tangerines sometime in the not too distant future Just gotta make sure the recent batch of fry turn out alright.

[JWin]

Yeah it looks to me like they are both males as well.


Cheers
Jack.

[Dr_Pat]

Thanks Boys. I might try my luck at the auction for a female or two....

[Salpon]

If you have trouble finding some I know City Farmers in Currambine has them in stock all the time. If you just choose the dullest looking ones they'll probably be female.

[jase87]

yep Currambine City Farmers always has them, aswell as a very large range of other malawi cichlids, I no as im the FISH GUY THERE..

[Link2Hell]

what are you feeding them ??

Chris

[Dr_Pat]

Yeah....been told that their diet makes it difficult to tell. Feeding them a mix of Cichlid gold sinking pellets and a frozen food I made up. Was feeding them super G (high protein colour enhancing food) when they were smaller but once they got bigger, the granules were small so i stopped.....haven't actually noticed a difference in colour to be honest.....and I feed them some kind of live food about once a month (gambusia and/or black/blood worms)

[the pulpican man]

you shouldnt be feeding malawis high protein foods.. they're not heavy meat eaters, buy yourself some hikari Cichlid Excel, cichlid gold is meant for carnivorous fish..

also if your planning on breeding, i wouldn't use super G again, that stuff isn't good for fish.. Hikari usualy has a natura colour enhancer anyways.

just thought i'd let you know.

cheers, Tom

[Salpon]

I'm pretty sure peacocks are carnivores just like many of the Malawi 'haps'. Mine get fed NL Spectrum which I think does a little bit for their colour, and it has more of the good stuff than Cichlid Excel.

The live food might be too much for their intestines though. Brine shrimp might be a good alternative.

Matt.

[the pulpican man]

matt,

i was just making sure they weren't just being fed high protein pellets and blood worm.. speaking from experience, my mate fed his demasoni blood worm, 4 of them got bloated real bad and died.. spectrums fine, better than hikari but it comes with a price tag haha, i wouldn't go feeding them feeders, as you said it probably wont do them any good, and brine shrimp sounds like a good alternative IMO fish should be fed a variety of protein AND plant material, it varies their diet and keeps them happy and healthy

Thanks,

Tom

[Salpon]

Peacocks do well on a diet of high protein pellets, they just shouldn't be fed things like beef heart etc which are too fatty. Some greenery is important too as you say, but most comercial foods contain spirulina anyway.

Demasoni are not comparable as they are primarily herbivorous grazers. Your advice is good for most other malawis though.

[Dr_Pat]

yeah, they get the frozen stuff exclusively 3-4 days a week which contains a bunch of vegies so it shouldnt be too problematic