Eureka Red Peacock

Aulonocara jacobfreibergi, known in the hobby as the Fairy or Eureka Red Peacock, is a cave-dwelling Malawi peacock found along rocky shorelines. The popular Eureka strain shows males with a fiery red-orange body, blue face and white-edged fins; females are silvery-grey. Larger and a bit bolder than most peacocks, it reaches around 15 cm and appreciates a tank of at least 300 litres with rock caves for shelter and spawning, plus open sand for sifting. Keep one male with a group of females and pair with peacocks or milder haplochromines rather than pugnacious mbuna. Maintain hard, alkaline water at 24-28°C, pH 7.7-8.6. As a sand-sifting micro-predator it does best on carnivore pellets and frozen mysis or brine shrimp, with protein kept moderate to prevent bloat.