In a Peacock Tank, Stocking Is the Whole Story
Yes — peacock cichlids, the Aulonocara of Lake Malawi, are kept for male colour, and colour is a stocking outcome. A dominant male blazes blue, yellow or red while a suppressed male in the same water stays drab, purely because of who else lives there. A stocking log records the cast behind the colour: which varieties and sexes you added, in what order, and what each change did to the hierarchy. Without it, you will credit food or lighting for changes your own stocking decisions caused.
Ratios matter as much as totals. Too few females per male concentrates harassment; an all-male setup trades breeding for display and demands careful selection. Written numbers keep those strategies deliberate instead of accidental.
Entries That Keep the Hierarchy Legible
Log arrivals with variety, sex, size and source, because a larger newcomer can reorder the tank overnight. Note who holds which rock pile, who coloured up within weeks of arrival, and who faded after a rival was added. Record removals and rehomings without embarrassment — in peacock keeping, moving a fish is management, and the log shows which moves restored calm.
Mark breeding events too: a female holding eggs, the date you noticed, and whether she was stripped, moved or left to release fry in the rockwork. Those entries explain her thin weeks afterwards and stop you misreading a holding female's closed mouth as illness or refusal to eat.
Feeding Records That Resist the Frenzy
Peacocks feed with total commitment, which makes portion memory useless. Log the staple cichlid pellet or food type, the amount in plain terms, and any extras, then judge body condition weekly — a gentle curve to the belly is right; pinched heads and swollen bellies in your notes are both warnings. Because these carnivorous-leaning cichlids suffer when rations are rich and endless, a written record of treats curbs the slow creep from occasional to daily.
Pair feeding entries with behaviour. Fish that ate eagerly but bicker constantly may be crowded at one feeding point; spreading food across the surface often shows in the next week's notes as calmer meals.
When the Label on the Glass Is Wrong
Peacock juveniles are frequently sold unsexed or mislabelled, and your log is where corrections live. When a supposed female colours up at four inches, do not rely on memory — write the re-identification down with the date and the first colour you saw, because that single correction rewrites your ratio maths and explains the chasing that puzzled you last week. Keep a line for each male's variety as best you can determine it, since similar-looking species kept together can produce mixed young if females are present, and a buyer or fellow keeper will want that history straight. Record colour honestly through moults of status, not just at peak display: a male who colours only when the dominant fish is removed during maintenance is telling you precisely how suppressed he is the rest of the time.
Seek prompt aquatic or veterinary help if a fish stops eating and isolates, a belly swells while appetite falls, or aggression leaves torn fins and a fish cowering at the surface — your dated stocking history helps identify whether a hierarchy change lit the fuse. Keep entries brief, at feeding and after any reshuffle. Collecting ratios, colour notes and rations in a KinsLe Pet Passport turns a complicated Malawi roster into one clear, portable record.