Lateral Line March 2011 - Hill Country Cichlid Club

18ues in a convex curve over the eye. In A. sp."stuartgranti maleri", this line is muchstraighter. Knowing this is very important.You do not want to get two different speciesand think you have the same thing. Youcould come out with hybrids which isfrowned upon in the hobby.Konings (1995c: 198) provides the followingbehavioral notes in the wild:All forms of the stuartgranti group behavein a similar manner. They are rathercommon in the intermediate habitatwhere females and juveniles are found insmall groups (or singly) feeding from thesandy patches between the rocks. Theyare most numerous on gently slopingcoasts where many rocks lie scattered onthe sandy floor. Males excavate nests betweenrocks and territories are markedwith a shallow rim of sand at the entranceof the spawning-cave. Digging is rarelyobserved in Aulonocara, although malesof several species have tunnel-nests betweenstones.I myself have a group of A. sp. "stuartgrantiMaleri" that consists of two males and eightfemales. The group is in a standard 55 gallonaquarium with a group of Cynotilapia Axelrodifrom Nkhata Bay. The tank has twosponge filters rated for 40 gallons each. Formy substrate I use pool filter sand that youcan get at the Home Depot costing six bucksfor 50 pounds. In addition to the pool filtersand I also use some breeding caves and afew pieces of Texas Holey Rock. The breedingis non stop and the temperament level isvery calm. Out of the 20 plus aquariums thatI maintain, this is by far my favorite one.If you are into Cichlids and wanting to trysomething with a striking yellow and bluecolor, you might want to look at getting Aulonocarasp. "stuartgranti Maleri" (MaleriIsland) . When doing so remember to go to areliable and knowledge source when shoppingfor this species or any species of peacock.I recommend Dave’s Rare AquariumFish. Great selection and the species are alwayspure. There are a handful of peacocksthat are similar to others so we as hobbyistmust make sure we are getting the correctspecies that way there is no risk of crossingour fish.After reading this short article I hope youhave learned and few things about theMaleri Island peacock and how it differsfrom the other close species of peacocks.Finally please remember to get you Peacocksor any species of fish from a good reliablesource!ReferencesKonings, Ad. 1995. Malawi Cichlids inTheir Natural Habitat (Second edition).Cichlid Press.Fishandtips.com http://fishandtips.com/displaydb.php?ID=39USAFishBox.com http://usafishbox.forumotion.com/t5-aulonocarasp-stuartgranti-maleri-island?highlight=aulonocara+sp+++stuartgrantiThe female Aulonocara sp. “stuartgranti”.