Until I became exposed and deeply memorized by the marine fish trade, I once considered going hardcore into African Cichlids. They are by far the most vibrant, colorful freshwater fish there is. Not only that, they are also quite hardy. And with the hard, high pH water here in the America Midwest, it is perfect for them.
African cichlids are easy to keep, and many of them are mouth brooders thus easy to breed and raise young. Unfortunately they have earned a bad reputation for being aggressive. Not only that, because of what people perceive as their aggressiveness, they also tend to offer them improper diet- Most African cichlids are primarily vegetarians but many people offer diet closer to the carnivore range.
The truth is, much like many marine fish, African cichlids are extremely territorial and requires a large range of space between each other, especially if they are nesting for comfort and security. For this reason, if you are overstocking the fishtank they can't help but squabble and display aggressiveness. While the tank above stocks quite a few of them for display purpose, for the long term health of the fish and tank, a tank of this size should really host no more than a three to four pairs of cichlids. And no, they aren't really community fish.
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