That JD, and a lot of other CA cichlids come from softer water then the rift lakes is total bull. In fact, some of the waters that JD come from would make lake malawi look soft in comparison. And pH is most often high 7 's to mid 8's. Limestone is the prevailing rock through out southern Mexico and Belize ---- through out most of the area that JD, sals and FM, for example, come from. You'd be hard pressed to find any bodies of water that are even remotely soft through out this area, though of course there are always the odd exceptions when your dealing with a large enough area.
The dietery differences, IMO, are largely exaggerrated. Rift lake cichlids vary just as much as CA cichlids in terms of what they eat in the wild. Mbuna that eat mainly aufwuchs, get a significant part of their nutrition from the small animals that live in it. And this is reflected by the fact that the vast majority of fish foods that are marketed towards rift lake cichlid keepers, such as NLS, still have animal as the main ingredeints, because it is the more nutritionaly significant. Many of the midas cichlid type fish make their living eating predominantly aufwuchs ------ do we stick them on a pedastil and think their dietary needs are so peculiar and so different then any other CA cichlid?
