What are your favorite cichlids of all time?

[SoDakSam]

Geophagus brasiliensis. Had a spawning pair for years. The male liked to have his head rubbed. I moved a couple hours away. He didn’t do well in the move and was never the same. I have Electric Blue Acaras that spawn, but they pale in comparison.

 

[dubus]

I'm not really a cichlid guy, but I've had a number of species over the years. My absolute favourite, bar none, is the Uara (U. amphiacanthoides). They used to be referred to as Poor Man's Discus, and I wound up with a couple of rescues (Rescuarus?) from the tanks of a friend's dad who passed away. Thought that they would be included with the majority of the other fish I got from him, which I planned to re-home at my leisure when I found good homes for them. Although I did re-home almost all the others, I fell in love with the Uarus, keeping and breeding them for over 10 years.

The newer Panda Uarus (U. fernandezyepezi) are even more appealing to me. Sadly, neither Uarus nor Oscars (my second favourite cichlids) are likely in my future. My water here at home isn't ideal for either species, and I don't fight nature; I tend to keep fish that fit my water, rather than trying to alter my water to fit specific fish.

But if I had the soft acidic water they like, one or both of the Uaru species would be the centerpiece of my tanks.

Is the hard water problem? Is she really that tough?
I have 5 Uaru amphiacanthoides (young - 8 months old) quite happily live in alkaline water (pH = 8.0, kH = 13, gH = 15, TDS = 400 ppm). I heard from those who also keep this fish that they spawned and were fry at TDS 250 and the upper limit for hatching fry is unknown.

 

[Deadeye]

Is the hard water problem? Is she really that tough?
I have 5 Uaru amphiacanthoides (young - 8 months old) quite happily live in alkaline water (pH = 8.0, kH = 13, gH = 15, TDS = 400 ppm). I heard from those who also keep this fish that they spawned and were fry at TDS 250 and the upper limit for hatching fry is unknown.

With a lot of fish, especially captive, they have a pretty big tolerance to hard water at a younger age, but as they get older, lots of issues can occur. This is the main reason HITH shows up in fish like oscars kept in hard water.

 

[jjohnwm]

Yeah, keeping a fish in decent health for a few months does not necessarily equate to providing ideal conditions for longterm care, especially a larger fish like a cichlid which will likely have a potentially longer life than a small guppy or tetra. There seems to be no shortage of cases described here of Oscars and other large SA soft-water cichlids developing HITH after being maintained in hard and/or alkaline water for several years.

I simply don't enjoy subjecting fish to conditions to which they are not well-suited. I keep fish that do well for life in the water available to me...and avoid those that merely survive in it.

Don't even get me started on those weird tanks containing a mix of SA cichlids, CA cichlids, African rift lake cichlids, a few goldfish and a brackish-water puffer...