[eyann]

Hi, i know my question will be weird, but let's ask anyway. In 20 years, i've never experienced something like what follows.

4 months ago, i got a small group of Aul. Flavescent from a breeder. I know they are 100% legit Flavescent. They were barely more than an inch long before i put them in a juvenile tank with some other Malawi's juvies (german red, sulfur head and star sapphire). Everything was perfectly fine for them and they grew slowly up to 2 inches, so they didn't color up yet. I guess, according to their behavior, that there are 3 males and 3 females in the group but i'm not 100% sure.

Before leaving for a 15 days trip in December, i noticed that one of my Star Saphhire was reacting weird, like if she was holding eggs (hence my last video post). I didn't pay too much attention, thinking that she was a little bit too young to hold eggs anyway (and i was sure "she" was a male at first......), but i wanted to make sure that she was going to be fine, so before leaving, i left a note to my friend saying that if she is being bullied or seems too stressed, netting her out and putting her in a small all set 20gal would be perfect.

But it turned out that she died quickly, leaving absolutely no trace of her, she just vanished, completely eaten by the others, and when i came back, one of the female Flavescent was holding, for real, she really was, at barely 2 inches long.

I put her in a small tank, all alone for 2 days then she could relax a little and i stripped her and got 8 little babies. 2 didn't make it but the 6 others were completely fine.

Even if it was really weird to me, I kept them first in a 5g tank, hoping that they were legit Flavescent like their mum.

I recently put all the Flavescent (6 juveniles about 2,5 inches long and 6 babies about 1 inch long) in a dedicated 55 gallons and everything is great for them, they are schooling and they are all very healthy. The thing is: two of the 6 babies are turning..... blue with a lot of blue on their fins, nothing to compare with the "parents" who are still a dull grey with dark stripes.

My weird question is: is it possible that the female Flavescent took the eggs out of the dying Star Sapphire and hold them for a while before i stripped her?

 

[DJRansome]

Yes.

But it is also possible that when you mixed the 1" juveniles, you were not able to ID which were flavescent and which were other peacock species...German Red for example. Not sure if the Sulphur head is peacock or hap as this is a common name...not a scientific name.

 

[BlueSunshine]

Sounds like you have some cross breeding going on. You can't keep your peacocks together and expect pure bred fish.
And no, I seriously doubt your female picked up eggs from a dying female just to hold....eat definitely....but not to hold.

 

[eyann]

But it is also possible that when you mixed the 1" juveniles, you were not able to ID which were flavescent and which were other peacock species...German Red for example. Not sure if the Sulphur head is peacock or hap as this is a common name...not a scientific name.

Yes, indeed, but the Flavescent were (and still are) smaller than the others, so it's easy to tell. The german red, even the females got a small amount of red, the Sulfur Head are peacocks and were bigger with some typical black marks.

Sounds like you have some cross breeding going on. You can't keep your peacocks together and expect pure bred fish.

i know that! And the tank was full of juveniles that i didn't want to breed. I have breeder tanks with some adults in there to do so, hence my surprise when i got fry from such a tiny Flavescent.
My goal is NOT to breed or cross breed the fish that are in the show tanks, especially when i don't even know how to sex them yet.

 

[Iggy Newcastle]

Sorry you lost the little Sapphire.

I've had mbuna holding at 1.5", not Aulonocara or any haps. But I've kept way more mbuna.

 

[eyann]

Sorry you lost the little Sapphire.
I've had mbuna holding at 1.5", not Aulonocara or any haps. But I've kept way more mbuna.

Thanx! Yeah, was bad to lose the Sapphire, i can easily say that she was one of my favorite, and i still don't understand why she died so quickly.
I'm gonna try to make some pictures of the little "blue" babies, but it's hard, the tank is in the basement with just a dim led light and my camera doesn't work so well with this kind of light.