Peacock Cichlid not eating

[SorryEh]

So this the third day of noticing my orange blotched peacock not eating. It will swim up to any food I feed them (pellets or fresh veggies) and look like it wants to eat them but doesn't open their mouth at all just kind of bumps it. The fish is showing no stress or abnormal behaviour and is not being persistently bullied. Water conditions are good:
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20 ppm

I was not able to perform my usual water change last Friday so I performed 50% today.
I have noticed a bit of a bulge in the fishes throat that looks similar to when they are holding but it is much smaller than the photos I have seen (my last cichlid to breed was much smaller than this one so it was very obvious), would that be a reason they would be keeping their mouth closed?

Tank is 55 gallons
Inhabitants are 4 Africans (2 electric yellows and the 2 peacocks) and 2 BNPs, I have gone through quite a few different cichlids to get peaceful ones and my current 4 are not aggressive towards each other at all so stress from other fish is definitely not the case here.

Picture will be provided when I am able to get one

 

[Colin_T]

can you post a picture of it?

does it have a mouthful of eggs?

try feeding it frozen (but defrosted) or live food. Use something that doesn't float.

 

[Goggy]

How long have you had the peacock cichlid in this tank?

 

[SorryEh]

can you post a picture of it?

does it have a mouthful of eggs?

try feeding it frozen (but defrosted) or live food. Use something that doesn't float.

I don't think it has a mouthful of eggs honestly, I am almost certain it is a male, but if it did its hard to tell.
I have attempted to feed it frozen zucchini, (what I feed them as a treat once a week or so) and it wanted to take it but wouldn't.
Photo down below, also took this video:

How long have you had the peacock cichlid in this tank?

I believe it has been in the tank for around 3 months, it was introduced at the same time as another peacock.

 

[Demeter32]

That is a holding female. Watch it for a few minutes and I bet you will see it "chew" or move the eggs/fry around in its mouth.

A male peacock will have longer and pointed anal + dorsal fins. Plus I've noticed that many female peacock will have a golden/yellow tinge to their body while males do not. She doesn't appear to be holding a ton of fry but I'm quite sure there's some in there.

 

[Colin_T]

Demeter is correct, it looks like a female with some eggs in her buccal pouch (area under her throat). Give her a few weeks and the eggs should have hatched and then she will be back to normal.

 

[SorryEh]

That is a holding female. Watch it for a few minutes and I bet you will see it "chew" or move the eggs/fry around in its mouth.

A male peacock will have longer and pointed anal + dorsal fins. Plus I've noticed that many female peacock will have a golden/yellow tinge to their body while males do not. She doesn't appear to be holding a ton of fry but I'm quite sure there's some in there.

Awesome this is the situation I was hoping for. I will monitor her closely to see if I can see anything, guess I will have to get the baby supplies out

 

[SorryEh]

When should I assume the eggs have been fertilized, I have not seen any mating activity this week (granted I am gone for quite a few hours a day, I read after around a week she would spit them out if they weren't fertilized, it has now been one week, how long should I wait before separating here? I have also decided to not quarantine her but instead I am going to divide 1/5 of the tank for her (Around 12 gallons of space, but of course plenty of dilution unlike putting her in the 10 gallon) assuming she does have fertilized eggs. The 2 males in the tank have both been leaving her a lone for the most part, one of the males sometimes chases her, but the other just chases her out of his cave.

 

[Colin_T]

The eggs would have been fertilised before she picked them up. Most male Rift Lake cichlids have egg spots on their anal fin and these are designed to help with fertilising the eggs. The female lays eggs and goes to pick them up. She sees the egg spots on the male's anal fin and tries to grab them because they look like eggs. When she is trying to grab the egg spots, the male releases sperm and the female gets a mouthful and the eggs get fertilised. Some eggs are also fertilised when they are laid, before the female picks them up.

Don't stress her out and leave her alone to look after the eggs and babies. If you can separate her from the others that will help but don't chase her around with a net and don't lift her out of the water.

 

[SorryEh]

The eggs would have been fertilised before she picked them up. Most male Rift Lake cichlids have egg spots on their anal fin and these are designed to help with fertilising the eggs. The female lays eggs and goes to pick them up. She sees the egg spots on the male's anal fin and tries to grab them because they look like eggs. When she is trying to grab the egg spots, the male releases sperm and the female gets a mouthful and the eggs get fertilised. Some eggs are also fertilised when they are laid, before the female picks them up.

Don't stress her out and leave her alone to look after the eggs and babies. If you can separate her from the others that will help but don't chase her around with a net and don't lift her out of the water.

It will be very easy to separate her, I just have to put the divider in since she spends most of her time in one area now, I have a sponge filter on the way as well.

 

[SorryEh]

Update, she was separated without any trouble and is much more calm and free swimming being in her own environment. she is getting pretty full, her mouth is almost opening enough for me to see inside. The other fish are not too happy with her being separated (apart from the BN plecos, they keep squeezing through the barrier and exploring). It has now officially been a week since I noticed her not eating and appearing to be holding. I have read that peacocks eggs take 1-2 weeks to "hatch" so it is time to keep an eye out I figure. My sponge filter will be arriving Friday.

 

[Demeter32]

In my experience the eggs hatch after 10 days of being laid. They are just tiny little specs stuck to their large yolk sacs at first but in another 2 weeks they absorb the yolk and look like fish. So usually it is 3 weeks of holding, then mom cares for the fry for another week or so after spitting them. She'll gather them up at night and when you approach the tank.

It is a good idea to move the fry to a separate tank a few days after she spits them out. Otherwise they won't be eating much other than scraps. You'll likely have to strip the fry from the female though, she'll probably gather then when you are trying to move them. I use a paper clip, tooth pick or pen cap (whatever is near by) when stripping females.

As the fry grow in her mouth you will definitely see how much bigger the throat area becomes. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it is for them, I'd guess the females are often poked by the fins of their little ones.

 

[Colin_T]

I never bothered separating eggs or fry from the females. I say just leave her in the divided section and when you see the babies, add newly hatched brineshrimp to the compartment. After a couple of weeks the mum will tell the babies to nick off and then you can scoop them out.

If you have to milk her (get her to spit them out), catch her out with a net and hold her in your hand (with her head down) above a container of tank water. Gently rub your finger under her throat (make sure your finger is wet). She will cough and some eggs or fry will come out. Do that several times and then put her back in the separated section to recover. However, it's preferable to leave her with the fry so they learn some basic parental behaviour. Lots of cichlids get screwed up because they are separated from their parents before they are old enough.


Keep her separated from the males for a couple of weeks after she starts eating so she can regain some weight before going back in with the others.

 

[SorryEh]

My current plan is to let them stay with the mother as long as possible but stripping is likely what I will have to do, I have read it is much more "humane" instead of leaving the mother to hold all those babies and not eat for so long. The mother does not seem weak yet and still moves around. Its been 9 1/2 days since she stopped eating, but it could of been longer and I just did not notice. I am keeping an eye out all day

 

[SorryEh]

Update: The eggs have hatched! She let 3 babies out a couple minutes ago and saw them briefly, setup a camera beside the tank to see if I can get a good look at them