New to cichlids, tankmate help?

Your LFS should probably never have ordered you that combination in the first place, so don't be pressured into taking them. I think it's a disaster waiting to happen, and I'm not against mixing peacocks with other less aggressive mbuna. I've heard of yellow labs and demasoni kept together successfully, though. In sufficient numbers this would make a really stunning display tank in bright yellow and blue. I actually like that look better than what I had to do, one fish of each color (not that I'd trade them).

Anyway, keep us posted.
 
Cowgrl4life said:
We have tons and tons of rock to put in for hiding spaces, and we are going to use the 55gal for the cichlids and move the goldfish to the octagon. If he cant change the order we're just going to have to see how it turns out, if he manages, our tank will be full of gorgeous Demosani! The plan is to buy 15 juveniles and as they grow cut our numbers until we have an appropriate male/female ratio.
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According to the cichlid-forum article, the ratio is unimportant. Also they are pretty difficult to tell the genders apart.
 
The female to male ratio is extremly important, If you dont have enough females the male will constantly harass the singe female often until she dies. That too bad your LFS either has no clue what there doing or they just dont care.. Its your choice to mix them but as Janikka said it going to be a disaster. Mbuna and Peacocks take up seperate areas in Lake Malawi for a reason, They dont get along in the wild and shouldnt be forced together at home, Other then the couple less aggressive Mbuna mentioned above, There is a good chance the Peacocks will be killed from the harassment and stress
 
Well, what they said at the LFS store was that he had had 50/50 success with them working together... this was after I called and asked him to switch my order. Still waiting to hear from him as to if he was able to do this or not. If he wasn't, I'll figure something out. I'm not going to take the peacocks home if its not going to work out. Like I said, the Demasoni are what we have decided we want for sure. If we need to we are going to do a tank of just them, or maybe a tank of them and the yellow labs which sounds like it would work too. I don't think the LFS owner would bat an eye at having to sell the ob peacocks in his store, he was out of them anyway. Its just a bummer I might not have the full 15 I wanted to start with to raise from juveniles and weed through later. But then again, maybe he was able to change the order, in which case 15 Demasoni are coming home with me on saturday!
 
Fish are here and settling in. We ended up with 6 Demasoni, 4 yellow labs (one with red eyes), 6 Ob peacocks (contrary to all other advice, I would not have done it but they were housed together at the fish store with absolutely no problems, no nipped fins etc. At the first sign of trouble, the peacocks WILL be removed, so do not worry!) and one other peacock (unknown on the color) that struck my fancy and found its way into the bucket to come home with me. Like I said, The peacocks will be watched intensely, right now they're really holding their own. . . (may be helping that they are bigger than the Demasoni). I really hope all turns out well and that with them being juveniles and raised together this will be one of the cases where it does work.
 
Peacocks are conspecific, which means the same species will fight with each other, if you do all different species like a ruby red and an OB (which is a hybrid but still really pretty), they tend not to fight because they are different species (colors mostly :-) ) I personally love peacocks. And a pleco should be fine, *however* algae eaters they are not. Not enough anyway. They produce more waste than they clean. Good algae eaters are otos or sae's, but I am not sure how they get along with peacocks. Synos are great catfish. Your tank is tall tho. You want to provide caves for the fish, thats really what they like, and a longer imprint is better. Even Synos like caves. So you are going to have to stack pretty high depending on the amount of fish you get. Another option is doing a few peacocks, like 3 or 4 as centerpieces, a syno and a school of dither fish like zebra danios. Just my opinion tho, keep us updated as to what you want to do!! Luck!!

Maribeth
 
Sorry, did not see your post above mine!!!! Woops!! Post some pics though, would love to see the tank with fish!!
 
You will NEED at least 6 more demasoni, or you'll end up with 1 that's killed the rest, that's just how they are.
Regarding the peacocks, it's not necessarily direct aggression from the mbuna, but their higher energy and territorial behavior that will stress out the peacocks.
Juvies are seldom any problem together, but once they start maturing mayhem and death can occur within a matter of hours. I had 2 male ruby red peacocks in a 75 along with a half-dozen or so females. They all grew out together from 1" juvies, and for months only 1 male showed full colors. Then the other male finally showed full colors for about a week, and then one of them was dead. Mbuna, particularly demasoni, are much more conspecific-aggressive than peacocks. The dominant male won't wait fo a week before killing any potential rival maless, and then the females when they aren't ready/willing to spawn with him.
 
-sighs- I'm so frustrated with how things ended up this weekend. We had called the LFS to see if he could change the order to 15 demosani, right? Well instead he changed the order to 15 OB peacocks, and only had 3 of the Demasoni. I went to store after store until finding just a few of the Demasoni, I've ended up with only six, and everyone saying they wont get along together with the Peacocks. I'm wondering if the LFS (not the one I bought them from) would take them on store credit considering there is nowhere here to buy the remaining 6 I would need to get the 1doz, or if she'd trade them for a few peacocks (no idea on what colors they are) just So I don't have to deal with them anymore lol. Originally I thought I really wanted them, which I was so stubborn about getting them, but now I'm just not so sure. Wish I had another empty tank LOL
I'll have to talk to the husband tonight when he gets off work and see exactly how partial he is to the demasoni, they may find themselves back in another fish store :huh:
 
Ok! Demasoni are gone! LFS (not where I bought them) traded them for peacocks, I'll be posting pictures in a separate thread I'm about to start to have a couple of them identified. They're peacocks for sure, I just don't know what they are. The plan is to weed through them as they grow :) So excited and the tank really looks great now!
 
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