Anyone kept a freshwater African Cichlid/brackish tank?

[Subnautica]

Sorry I really don't know where to post this. If you mods don't mind please move it the right place.

So I was wondering if anyone here has an African cichlids/brackish setup? I heard from the freshwater folks that they are very fun, even more fun than reef, especially when it comes to the fish's behaviors. So if you've had both, what's exactly fun about them? And would you say they are more interesting than Reef?

 

[Azedenkae]

Sorry I really don't know where to post this. If you mods don't mind please move it the right place.

So I was wondering if anyone here has an African cichlids/brackish setup? I heard from the freshwater folks that they are very fun, even more fun than reef, especially when it comes to the fish's behaviors. So if you've had both, I wonder what you think.

I don't keep african cichlid tanks, or rather, 'african cichlid-only' tanks as I tend to keep american cichlids and do toss african cichlids into those tanks every once in a while. Regardless, yes they are a lot of fun, a lot of activity from cichlids. I have seen quite a few african cichlid tanks and yeah, they are fun. Especially species-only tanks actually. You get to see a lot more behaviour that may be unique to those species.

 

[tbrown]

I have a small reef tank and an African Cichlid tank. I've kept a 30 gallon brackish tank previously.
I have had a 125 African Cichlid tank and there was always lots of movement. One thing to consider is that you pretty much need a male only tank or lots of females to keep the aggression under control.
My brackish tank never really did good and only lasted about a year before I replaced it with a bearded dragon.

 

[dennis romano]

I had African cichlids for many years. They are very colorful, active and pretty much bullet proof. They are also very easily bred. You can choose from rock dwellers, open water fish, peacocks or big predators.

 

[BLB]

I can vouch for what Dennis said. I had my very first Cichlid (Robert the robofish) for nearly 4years now, he has outlived my learning about cichlids period and my interest is still growing on them. He was called Robert after I left him in the office tank before holidaying to Thailand. I left the security guard ro water to top off with until I returned in 2 weeks. Little did I know the world was going to shut down due to the corona virus. Long story short my 2week travel to 1 country turned into a 3 other countries and it took me over 4 month to return. I was so sure the tank was a write off I decided the go and strip the pump and other parts to start a home tank. The water had evaporated up to 80% of the water and as I was taking the pump I spotted him. He had been living off algae and looked a little bit smaller but still very healthy. This was 4 months without food or water changes. I had a plant in there (Anubis I think) but what a trooper.

 

[BLB]

Later I researched my butt off and ended up falling in love with all the cichlids but favored butterfly peacocks and other Malawis. I have been lucky enough to see breeding dances, Learned how to strip and raise young fry, watch them move small stones while they decorate their own scape, felt with aggressive behavior between male sulpher heads and sift through sand and make nests.