i noticed that someone was digging pits in the gavel a few days ago and my first thought was okayyyy.....now who is preparing to spawn? well this morning when i went to feed the fish, i noticed this blue ahli(pictured of course) holding :D i have had them for a few months now and not sure whether i had all females becauses the males have not colored up yet but i guess it's because they are not mature enough yet.
i went to my haps/peacock tank at moms house and........ :lol2: another female holding and 2 more getting ready to spawn in the next few days as they are swollen with eggs.

This leads me to have concern that you may have a brood of hybrids on the way...

Did you see the spawn? Malawis are pretty notorious for trying to breed with any USO (unidentified swimming object)...

Hell...With some fish it dosn't even have to be an animate object....I've seen my Peacock try to get it on with fake plants...rocks....he goes up and shows and flashes and shimmies dang near all the time...One of the "randiest" fish I've ever seen!

no hybrids. i have male ahlis and just overnight for some reason they have begin to take on a dark blue :) no way they could have bred with red empress or red zebras who are not old enough to begin breeding. the female ahli who is holding has turned very dark in color as well as the males and this happened overnight. this is some strange stuff going on. i just checked and so far she is still holding. i have a tank full of different species with males and females of the same species and all i ever get when my zebra obliquidens spawn is more zebras so i'm one who believes hybrids occur in tanks when there is no male and female of the same species. i have no hybrid fry yet so i don't worry about my fish crossbreeding. now with peacocks i'd be a little concerned but then again unless there are no males of the same species with the females i would not worry about them crossbreeding either evern though i know they can.