Flavescent Peacock Cichlid

The flavescent peacock (Aulonocara stuartgranti, still widely listed as A. steveni) is a Lake Malawi cichlid in which males carry yellow through the body and fins over a blue head, while females remain a plain grey-brown. Peacocks feed by hovering just above open sand, using sensory pits along the jaw to detect small invertebrates moving under the surface, then diving in after them — a habit worth designing the tank around.

Aquarium care

• Adults reach roughly 13 cm.
• Give it an open sand bed rather than gravel, so it can feed naturally.
• Requires hard, alkaline water with strong filtration.
• Keep one male with a group of females; two males will fight in most tanks.
• Calmer than mbuna, and will be pushed around by them.
• Feed quality pellets and frozen foods, avoiding overly rich diets.

Best kept with other peacocks and calm haps of similar size in a Malawi setup with rockwork and open sand. Aulonocara species cross-breed readily, so keep only one peacock type if you care about pure stock. They are not suitable with mbuna or with small community fish.

Stock rotates with each shipment, and livestock is available for local pickup at our Lethbridge store. See the peacock cichlid collection.