How many african Cichlids?

Question

If i have a 90 gallon aquarium what is the ideal amount of african cichlids to have in this size aquarium??

Answer 1

What kind of African Cichlids? If you are going with something as large as Frontosa, I'd say 3-4. If you are going with something as small as Peacocks, I'd say between 7-10.

Answer 2

I'll give ya one more shot here Ryan.  

How many is going to vary from maybe 1-2 of a single species to as many as maybe 25 or even 30 of four or five different species.  It's my personal experience, and note I'm not saying anything about yours, but just mine, that with Africans, it's largely about your tank footprint.  Now that I know or knew rather the footprint, the next biggest factor, IN MY OPINION, is aggression levels.

I'm sure you are quite aware being a South American keeper yourself, there are quite a bit of different levels of aggression.  The same applies with Africans but even more so.  Where a South American that is aggressive typically uses brute force to kill with, Africans will harass relentlessly and basically stress the other out.  Typically, this is limited to males.  Not all species are male dominant.  There are a few here and there that are female dominant.  None that I know of in popular keeping though.

Basically yes, it is acceptable and common practice to over stock. My understanding of the logic of this is should any 1 particular male get aggressive too much, he wouldn't be able to, as he wouldn't be able to just target others without having to watch his own back.  The only analogy I've been able to think of it is you have your gun pointed at your neighbor, but I also have my gun pointed on you.  It's going to keep you thinking about pulling that trigger.  I bet someone has a better analogy then that, but I think you'd get the idea.

There are some here, that have been doing this longer then I have, but from my experiences, and it's been almost 100% positive, you do not have to overstock.  I think with your experiences with South Americans, you clearly are not a beginner, and would have enough experience to keep maybe 2 or 3 species, in lower counts.  If you provide enough boundries, and watch the male to female ratio, at least in my tanks, it's all worked out quite well.  With your footprint, I see no reason at all why you couldn't even do a Mbuna and Hap mix.  I've helped another user of this forum who's a member over in Everything Aquatic do this in a 90 gallon also.  

Sorry we got off to a heated exchange on your other questions, but I promise you, I'm not trying to jerk you around.  I'll be more then happy to help you out with any African set up that interests you.