Why are cichlids popular? In what ways are they smart?

Question

I've never had a cichlid before but they seem popular and I read one of the reasons of this is because they are one of the most intelligent types of fish and have interesting behaviour. So I was wondering what it is they specifically do? If you have cichlids, do you have specific examples of interesting behaviour or intelligent behaviour? I'm interested to know. Thanks!

Answer 1

Popular Cichlids

Answer 2

I don't know that I would consider cichlids to be particularly more intelligent than other fishes; swimming toward the front or the surface when a person is seen is a general response to being fed, and it's not person-specific. I would say that the appeal for most people in keeping cichlids is their coloration, aptitude for biotopes (mimicking a natural habitat) with African species in particular, and their unique breeding behaviors. The last one is what I find most interesting about many cichlids. Some build nests, some lay their eggs upside-down, many provide various forms of parental care, and breeding projects are easy enough for most beginners to be exciting without being expensive or time-intensive.

Answer 3

Can't help too much on why and how cichlids became so popular, you'd have to keep them to understand. But I know they're very intelligent in a way that they understand what's going on outside of the tank and can recognize owners, can hold grudges, and learn. Personally I've "stick trained" my oscar cichlid, whenever he's misbehaving and bothering fish I used to poke him with a stick and he'd run away. Now he will run away if he simply sees it, and it can act as a tank divider since if I put it in the tank it acts like a "border line". He also recognizes the kind of food I feed him, when I bring out my plecos sinking tabs he doesn't react, but when he sees his bag of cichlid food he freaks out and begs for food. He also HATES me, because of the whole "disciplinary" thing, he'll sometimes charge at the glass and follow me. Typically south american cichlids are SUPER tough, Sometimes my oscar would get nasty deep gashes from freaking out at night and would fully heal in a week or less. Plus they're super colorful! Here's my oscar! VVVV

Answer 4

They are popular because many are easy to care for, and there are many types of cichlids such as apistogrammas, discus, angelfish, ect. that have a variety of colors. I believe that's the main attraction to them; how colorful they are. Take African cichlids for example, there are tons of different types, which range in sizes from 0.5-25" basically, from aquariums 10 gallons and up, there's an African cichlid perfectly suited for one.



Angelfish have been a popular fish for quite a while, many people like them because of their coloring and just the way they look in general, they're basically top 5 in popularity for freshwater aquarium fish, and African cichlids are maybe in top 10, top 15, angelfish alone bring up the overall popularity for all cichlids.



In regards to your question whether or not they're intelligent; they are fairly intelligent, but overall for many people I think the major attraction is how interactive they are; with oscar cichlids, Jack Dempsey's, ect swimming to the front of the tank whenever they see their owner, many people describe them as water dogs. They do not necessarily know when they're going to be fed, they just generally gather to the front of the aquarium, in hopes to be fed, or they may think it's feeding time. However, this behavior is far from exclusive to cichlids, tetras do it, many types of catfish do, rainbow fish, betta, gourami, spiny eels, ect.



As I said, I think the major appeal is the coloration, the cichlid family is huge, there's African cichlids, South Americans, Central Americans and New World cichlids, so generally, there's something for everyone's preference and taste.

Answer 5

Ok I have a 60 gallon chiclid tank and they know when you are going to feed them they are very pretty and you have to have a lot of room for them to swim and places to hide cause they are territorial they come out of the African waters but you can't mix the south and North American chiclids or they will kill each other they also have a lot of babies every month Mina have upto 500 babies but they get eaten by other fish but I would recommend getting some