Female was seen holding January 15th, 2023
Stripping the Female Peacock February 1st, 2023
These 2 peacocks were housed in a 40-breeder grow-out tank to get bigger so they would do well in the 90-gallon African Cichlid tank. We got these as small 1-1 1/2 inches, so gender was unknown as they grew up the male displayed colors while the female did not. On January 15th while feeding the tank we observed that the female was not eating. She was primarily reclusive, shying away from the other fish. Her mouth got really big as seen in the photo. After seeing this we inserted a divider into the tank to separate the female from the rest of the tank. The main reason was to create less stress for the female and to allow her to properly care for the eggs in her mouth. When stressed the mother peacocks may swallow or spit the eggs, subsequently killing the eggs. Another option for separating her would have been to strip her and take the eggs. They would then be put into a tumbler to artificially simulate the mother's tumbling. We took the risk and let her naturally hold due to the lack of a tumbler.
On February 1st, we stripped the female of her fry. They all had a little egg sack left but were mostly free swimming.