I’ve got a community of white-tail acei, mixed peacocks (mostly dragon/strawberry and o.b.), and yellow labs. The acei and labs are running families, and the peacocks seem to be trying. (I didn’t heed the all-male recommendation. I hoped I could give a more natural environment.)

These two blue dolphin cichlids tend to get pulled into the peacocks’ aggressive bouts. One has developed and sustained unilateral pop-eye, coming and going, for what seems like at least a few months. I’m finally isolating those two and starting with a mild salt treatment in hopes that eye just needed peace, time, and water params to heal on its own.

I’ve got them both isolated because I just intend to re-home them once Mr. Popeye is healthy. The other three families are populating the tank with their lookalikes, while these two might be getting singled out more and more.

tldr: I’m wondering if this looks like a possible pair I should try to keep together or whether they might do just fine going to a community tank at my LFS. If there’s a chance they’ve bonded, I’ll try to re-home them directly to keep them together.