SA/CA Cichlids intelligence/personality question.

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J

JasonMTL

Feeder Fish
Oct 1, 2011
2
0
0
Montreal
I keep reading that SA/CA have more personality and are more intelligent than their African counterparts. I have no idea what this means. The eartheaters always seem to come up in the discussions I've seen as well.

I'm setting up my first tank and I'm doing my research but this question seems to never be addressed in older threads.

Thanks in advance.
 
SA/CA cichlids have more personality in that they are not skiddish like africans. they come right up to you and feed straight from your hands!
 
Jimmy16 said:
SA/CA cichlids have more personality in that they are not skiddish like africans. they come right up to you and feed straight from your hands!
Click to expand...

Well I guess thats possible for most people, however my ca/ sa's arent like that, my JD's are really skiddish and ive had them for probably almost a year now. My oscar is the only fish I have that will come to see me which hes normaly towards the top anyways, but he still wont come eat from my hand which may be because I dont leave my hands close to him long enough for him to grab food from them cuz I dont want to be bit lol. but they def have alot of personality.
 
It more depends on the species/individual than an enitre group. There are skittish SA/CA cichlids like Jack dempsey's and there are personable africans like butti's. I had a red zebra cichlid once that was extremely personable and would greet me first to the front of the tank. He would even eat flakes from between my fingers. In fact all my mbuna were bold fish that always come out to beg for food and even flare at my hand sometimes. My centrals I currently have exhibit great personality too.
 
My africans seem pretty personable too. Ive got some purple acei's that always follow my every move, and are always begging for food, and blue dolphins that will get mad and splash me if i leave my hand over the tank without dropping food in lol. I guess they get pissed when I tease them
 
Never had any africans before, but all my Geopahgus and Angels handfeed readily, infact, almost more comfortable with handfeeding.
 
CA/SA Cichlids seem to look out into the room and understand some of whats going on. They also interact with humans much more. (begging for food, charging at them with aggression, etc) ..... African cichlids have great colors, but don't seem to have the personal connections like the large CA/SA Cichlids do.

good luck with your choices. :)
 
I believe it depends on the time you spend with the fish. Ive got a few livingstioniis and a paratilapia pollenii that are very personable, hand feed and act very much like a dog. I think the blanket belief that African cichlids are less personable is partly untrue. And possibly has something to do with African tanks being stocked more heavily than ca/sa's preventing a lot of one on one time. I keep angels as well and only two seem interested in me and are some of the coolest fish Ive kept. If you treat the animal truly like a pet you will probably be rewarded. My pollenii "yoshi" and I have a great time everyday.
 
It really all depends on the individual fish. I've had a skittish Midas before, and at the same time I've had a JD that was always the first to greet me at the front of the tank. Generally, on the whole, SA/CA cichlids are more personable that Africans though.
 
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