[Roms]

Originally Posted by Boofo

Me and a friend of mine raised African Cichlids back in the middle to late 70's for a few of the aquarium shops in the local area. We had 50+ tanks at his house. Most were 30 to 55 gallons tanks. That was about the time that Piranhas were becoming the next big thing in aquariums, if you can remember that.

I raise African Cichlids right now, they've become my favorite over the years. I've had about every type of fish you can get. I've even had a small mouth bass and crappie.

The ones I breed right now are White tail Acei and Yellow Benga Peacock... I'll post a few pics below...

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

As kids my friend/neighbor and I had freshwater tanks. We'd buy fish from the local Petland Discounts store... we had no idea that some fish didn't get along with others.

One day we each brought home what were labeled "Convicts (Black)" they had lines up and down like the old time convict uniforms but were basically dark grey on black.

I would later find out they were a type of African Ciichlid.

The first night was bad for both of us. I lost 1 fish, he lost 2 I think. When we looked up (in a real paper book, OMG no google in 1985) and found the aggressive nature of the fish I chose to bring mine back to the store... he kept his... In a week or two he only had this 1 fish left, and he kept it for many years, it just kept growing and growing, far bigger than any fish in my tank.

One time he had put it in a small bowl while cleaning the tank and was bringing the bowl downstairs... the fish jumped out of the bowl... and off the side of the stairs.

Convicts are South American...

Yeah, South American cichlids are fun to my favorite are severums and jack dempseys... I had an oscar that was so big and lazey he would lay on his sids all day til it was time to eat some goldfish...

I've had eels too... They are fun til they crawl out of the tank... LOL

[BirdOPrey5]

Africa... South America... It's all killer-bee country to me.

[Roms]

SA cichlids mostly live in rivers ect and there are only like 100 different species. Africa has the three largest lakes in the world tanganyika (largest, it's an abyss), lake malawi (the ones I raise) and lake victoria... over 8000 species of cichlid...

Africans are mouth brooders too (raise the fry from eggs in their mouths...)..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cichlid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bb7q3L7uVM