Question on female peacock cichlids

[Jcbanks]

Silly question but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere.  Does anyone know are wild caught female peacock cichlids look alike?  If so, how do they know which gene/color they are from?  Or does the female not matter and rather it just depends on the male?  Thanks for your answers

[danielratti]

The female matters to what species it goes to yes. Generally they catch species in different points where they are sometimes the only species of peacock.

[Ron]

Silly question but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. 

Made me chuckle. What would make you think the female doesn't matter and you can just mix-n-match? Peacocks have evolved into a wide variety and if you were to breed males of specific types to any female, you'd just get a muddled mix of indeterminate results. Hybrids are very frowned upon within the hobby. It's easy to lose the genetics of a fish through mixing species and impossible to get them back.

Does anyone know are wild caught female peacock cichlids look alike?

They aren't all alike, but many look very similar and can be hard or almost impossible to tell apart if you mix them.

If so, how do they know which gene/color they are from?

Keeping species in separate tanks, good record keeping, and only buying from trusted sources.

Or does the female not matter and rather it just depends on the male?  Thanks for your answers

It most certainly matters. The female is 50% of the reason a certain species of peacock looks as it does.

[Jcbanks]

Thanks...I kind of figured but I could not find anything online with the information.  I actually do have them all separate and the only ones that actually look different are the blue orchids.

[Ron]

Good to hear you erred on the side of caution and kept them separate. In time you might be able to notice more slight differences, but even those that have kept peacocks for many years would have a hard, probably impossible time accurately IDing them if you were to mix of a variety of species in a tank.