Gertrude's peacock

Aulonocara gertrudae

Also known as Gertrudae aulonocara

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 75–81°F (24–27°C)
pH: 7.5–8.5
Adult size: 5.1 in (13 cm)
Minimum tank: 74 gal (280 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Lake Malawi
Family: Cichlidae

Overview

This is one of the larger sand dwelling peacocks, calm in temperament and best kept as one male with several females so his attention is spread rather than aimed at a single fish. It lives close to the bottom, cruising open sand and pausing to sift mouthfuls in search of food, so give it a soft sand bed and a few stones rather than a wall of rock. It mixes well with other peaceful Malawi peacocks and haps of similar size and is not a species tank fish, though the male guards a small patch of sand at spawning time. Feed sinking pellets and frozen foods such as brine shrimp, mysis, and cyclops. A group is comfortable in a tank of around 280 liters or more.

In the wild

Gertrude's peacock lives over the sandy and muddy floors of Lake Malawi, often near river mouths, where it hunts small invertebrates buried in the substrate. Give it the hard, alkaline water of the lake at 24–27 C and roughly pH 7.5–8.5, with an open sand bed it can sift and a scattering of rocks to break up sight lines. Leave plenty of clear floor rather than filling the tank with stone.

Good to know

Aulonocara gertrudae is a cichlid in the family Cichlidae and reaches about 13 centimeters, making it one of the largest and most robust of the sand dwelling peacocks. Like all Aulonocara it carries enlarged sensory pores along the head that pick up the movement of prey hidden in the sand. It is a mouthbrooding cichlid: after spawning the female takes the eggs into her mouth and broods them there, and breeding is of moderate difficulty.

Did you know

Ad Konings described this peacock in 1995 and named it for his wife, Gertrud; much of Lake Malawi's scientific record doubles as a record of the people who spent their lives studying its fishes.

Tank mates

Gertrude's peacock is a mostly peaceful, social species that keeps to the bottom. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.