African cichlids don't deserve big tanks? I see where you are going with this but think for a minute about what big tanks offer that little tanks rarely can. They offer the chance to view the actual behavior of your fish. A monster predator in a large tank like a 180 (it is sad that I really don't consider a 180 to be a big tank any more) is still going to be cramped and not show many of its natural behaviors. A group of small fish however will display their full natural behavior in a large tank like they never could otherwise.
One of the coolest home tanks I have ever see was a 500 gallon south american community tank. Not a south american thug tank, but one filled with hundreds of tetras of all shapes and colors, a huge school of hatchet fish, assorted small plecos and other small south american oddballs, and about 50 discus. The tank looked like what I would imagine a dive into a river in south america would look like. The schooling behavior was peaceful with all the little fish constantly darting around to avoid the discus, who would take out the odd little tetra ever now and then.
I have had native tanks, had one in my classroom for 5 years. They always end up the same. Add all the fish, wait for lmb to get a scale up his ***, everyone except bass gets ripped apart or mauled to the point they wish they were dead. Start over cus this time it will be different.
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