peacock holding something in its mouth

[Azimiut]

I have peacock ciclid, dont know what kind, it was given to me by a friend. anyhow, it is about 2.5", tan with black spots/stripes and in a 38 gallon with an electric blue peacock, 3 yellow haps, and 2 tiny unknown peacocks.

it has been like this for about a week or so, when i first had seen it I though it ate one of the tiny peacocks, but they are both there. I dont know if it has anything in its mouth or not, but it definately looks like there is something there, plus it is dark around the whole moth area. it also does not open its mouth that i have seen. anybody have any idea whats up with this fish? they do not hold the eggs in the mouth do they? anyhow, any ideas would be appreciated!

[Oscar_Wild]

It sounds like it is holding eggs. In about 2 to 3 weeks you should see some free swimming fry.

[Azimiut]

that is what i was thinking, i did not know if they did that. out of the 4 other possible fish, i think if they are furtile, it most likely will be with the electric blue peacock(blue and yellow fins), all the other fish are almost 1" smaller. is there anyway to protect the fiy from the other fish without removing them?

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

id say it bred with the e blue if theirs no mature males this happens very ofter so be careful and if they are e.blue and peacock feed them to something that likes feeders lol.

[Oscar_Wild]

The only way to protect the fry will be to remove them. You will remove the mother to a growout tank until she spits the fry then put her back in the main tank if you really want the fry to survive predation. I agree with Dragon though, let the mother spit in the main tank, and nature will take care of the rest.

[Azimiut]

yea, that is what i was going to do. maybe they might live, maybe.