good fishkeepingTHE FRESHWATER FIELD GUIDE

fish · Cichlidae

Flavescent peacock

Aulonocara stuartgranti

Wild range: Endemic to Lake Malawi, along both the east and west coasts (Seriously Fish; FishBase). (Africa)

Flavescent peacock (Aulonocara stuartgranti 'Usisya'), a male with a yellow body and blue face, over sand at Frankfurt Zoo
Photo via Mike Peel (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

At a glance: Flavescent peacock care

Compiled reference information. Review the care notes and original sources below.

What temperature is listed for Flavescent peacock?

The compiled profile lists 23.0–26.0 °C for Flavescent peacock (Aulonocara stuartgranti). Check the original sources below for context and differing recommendations.

What tank size is listed for Flavescent peacock?

The profile lists a minimum tank volume of 64.0 US gallons (243.0 liters). Volume alone does not establish suitability; consider dimensions, group size and other inhabitants alongside the full care notes.

What pH is listed for Flavescent peacock?

The compiled profile lists a pH of 7.5–8.5. Review the cited care sources alongside the other water parameters in this profile.

Natural habitat

A Lake Malawi peacock cichlid that hovers over the sand near rocks, hunting small invertebrates with the enlarged sensory pores on its head. Males reach about 12-13 cm and are blue, yellow or a mix of both depending on where in the lake the population comes from; females stay plain grey-brown. It is one of the calmer Malawi cichlids, but it needs hard, alkaline water and a large tank with open sand.

Where they are found

Aulonocara stuartgranti Meyer & Riehl, 1985 is valid in ITIS (TSN 648335), GBIF (2370511, accepted), FishBase and Catalog of Fishes. Type locality: Mpanga Rocks, Chilumba, Lake Malawi. IUCN and Catalog of Fishes treat Aulonocara steveni and A. hansbaenschi (both Meyer, Riehl & Zetzsche, 1987) as junior synonyms, while FishBase still lists them as valid species (Wikipedia; Seriously Fish), so they are noted here but not added as aliases. A. baenschi, A. korneliae and A. hueseri were once treated as forms of this species and are now separate. The forms called A. sp. 'stuartgranti maleri' and A. sp. 'stuartgranti mbenji' may be distinct species (Seriously Fish). Many populations are traded under locality names, including Ngara ('flametail'), Usisya, Chilumba, Maulana ('bi-colour 500'), Chitimba Bay (sold under the made-up name 'A. masoni'), Hai Reef and Cobue; other trade names are Grant's peacock, blue neon peacock (A. sp. 'blue neon') and 'Tanzania yellow' (Seriously Fish). Blue forms come mostly from the north of the lake and yellow forms from the south. Endemic to Lake Malawi in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania (FishBase; Wikipedia). Max length 11.8 cm TL (FishBase) / 130 mm SL (Seriously Fish). IUCN: Least Concern (Konings 2018).

Aquarium care

Give a harem a tank with a base of at least 120 x 45 cm, about 243 L (Seriously Fish; Fishkeeper UK says at least 4 ft long). Keep it at about 23-26°C, pH 7.5-8.5 and 10-25 dGH; hosts give wider bands (Seriously Fish 23-29°C, pH 7.5-9.0, 10-25 dGH; Fishkeeper UK 22-26°C, pH 7.5-8.5, up to 25 dH; AquaInfo 22-26°C, pH 7.5-8.5, 4-25 dH; FishBase 22-26°C). Use fine sand so it can sift for food, with rock piles and open sand between them. It is very sensitive to poor or unstable water, so add it only to a mature tank, filter heavily and change 30-50% of the water weekly (Seriously Fish). It does not usually harm plants (Seriously Fish).

Feeding

A sand-sifting micropredator that hovers above the bottom and hunts small invertebrates. Feed varied fine-grade pellets and flakes, some with Spirulina or other plant matter, plus small frozen or live foods such as bloodworm, Artemia, Mysis and mosquito larvae. Several small meals a day work better than one large one (Seriously Fish; Fishkeeper UK; AquaInfo).

Compatibility

Calm for a Malawi cichlid, but males are territorial and attack fish with similar colours. Keep one male with 4-6 females unless the tank is very large (Seriously Fish; Fishkeeper UK). Do not keep it with other Aulonocara, because they hybridise and the females are hard to tell apart (Seriously Fish; Fishkeeper UK; Practical Fishkeeping). Avoid most mbuna, which are too rough; good tankmates are calm haps such as Copadichromis, Cyrtocara and Placidochromis and placid mbuna such as Labidochromis caeruleus (Fishkeeper UK; Practical Fishkeeping). Not a fish for a soft-water community tank.

Breeding

A maternal mouthbrooder that often breeds in the main tank. Keep one male with four or more females so his chasing is spread out. He displays over a flat rock or a dug pit in the sand; the female lays eggs a few at a time and picks them up, and the eggs are fertilised in her mouth when she mouths the egg spots on his anal fin. She holds the brood for about 3-4 weeks and usually does not eat. Fry take Artemia nauplii or crushed flake straight away and can be sexed at about 4 months (Seriously Fish; Fishkeeper UK; Practical Fishkeeping).

Sources

Compiled from multiple independent care sheets — not copied from a single site.