The "OB Peacock" is not found in Lake Malawi but rather is a man-made cichlid species. It was engineered by crossing a male Aulonocara species with an OB female mbuna, at least initially.
This man-made species is problematic for a few reasons. Principally, it is hybrid, which many African Cichlid hobbyists find detestable. This is based upon (1) a fear that any hybrid will destroy the purity of a species's gene pool if allowed to co-habitat; and (2) the creators of such “species” are evil because they play god out of greed. This is a harsh accusation. I am not going to take sides on this debate - at least not here - but will attempt to objectively explain the rationale behind each camp’s arguments. Wish me luck!
The Defense:
First of all, hybrids will cross-breed with other Cichlids, but no more readily than two Julidochromis species or two Pseudotropheus species if kept in the same tank. Their claim is that hobbyists are creating more hybrids more rapidly than they are because of the general hobbyist's ignorance and poor fish keeping. What’s worse than creating and selling engineered hybrids, they say, is the hobbyist who ignorantly throws together a few of this and a few of that (aka. fish soup), get them to spawn, and then pass the fry along to friends or trade them in to local fish shops. At least they are above-board, they argue, which poses much less of a threat to muddying gene pools because people are aware of what they’re getting (provided they do some research before buying).
Second, Cichlid hobbyists have been characterized as eager enthusiasts, always ready for the next “new” fish or color variant to come out of the lakes. As time goes by, fewer new-looking fish are being caught and exported because exporters are running out of unexplored habitats. In order to keep many hobbysists’ interest and to satisfy their insatiable appetite, professional breeders resort to engineering their own color morphs. Some are line bred, and others…are hybrids. If you don’t fall in this category, don’t be offended…and don’t be fooled into thinking that there aren’t large numbers of hobbyists out there that do.