[roadmaster]

I would assume that those who wrote book's on the topic of African's and their dietary habit's would have done so after some studying of same over a period of year's,not just one group or two over a few week's.
I stopped keeping them due to the increasing cross breeding being allowed and fish stores advertising "mixed african's" which more often as not were just that mixed.cross bred fish that did not look exactly like any species (with a few exception's).
Most of those I kept,did well in large group's when juvenile's, but became increasingly aggressive as the became sexually mature around 4 month's or 4 inches.
Then the tank's were basically a free for all and i did not like removing,re-homing fish almost monthly.
I found them to be excellent digger's, and this along with their appetite for plant matter, made keeping plant's difficult with exception of anubia's,val's,and water sprite which grew fast enough that they could not really hurt it too much.
Carpet plant's never got to root before they were dug up but potted plant's did ok.
My peeve has alway's been with those who insist a particular species noted for particular behaivor, has more to due with personality (see Betta keeper's) rather than natural instinct's. They try and attach human qualities to fishes where there is none.

 

[roadmaster]

The bigest mistake I find on information about African cichlids is that they are sometimes written about as if they were all cut from the same mold. It would be the same as saying all Central or South American cichlids are the same. It is just not logical to say that an angelfish and an Oscar will do the same things so why is it logical to say all African cichlids are the same? In fact, when we look at the African cichlids it is even less logical for them. Since they are so much more adapted to fit very specific niches in the lake, for them to all be spoken of as doing the same is really just a lack of knowledge.
There are mbuna who eat algae. There are mbuna who comb algae looking for micro organisms to eat and are not at all interested in eating algae. There are African cichlids who hide in and under rocks and there are those who live in huge schools out in the open water where they rarely go near a rock. Some are territorial and some who are not.
If they are 9 inch fish living on bugs and in open water, they will not act the same as a one inch fish living in a shell.
Choosing an African cichlid is just the same as choosing any fish. You just have to find reliable information. But there is one further complication. A smaller percentage of the written iformation on African cichlids is correct. Much of it was written in the days of Axelrod and that info is still being copied and passed on.

You are just grasping.Many up to date book's out there,just need to look.
By and large,,african cichlid diet's are comprised of algae,small crustacean's,plant matter.(look to food's suggested for them)
It is their search for these food's that make keeping plant's difficult.
Rooting around in substrate,or stripping algae from plant leaves/ stem's.
Some older volumes regarding cichlid's are still among the best reference book's such as..
Baensch's Cichlid Atlas volume one,or newer book's such as Lake Tanganyika Cichlid's by Mark Smith published in 2007 by Cichlid press.
Aqualog; African cichlids by Ad Konings, published in 2007 by Cichlid press.
Back to nature Malawi cichlid's published 2003.
Agree that some African's are herbivore's,some are omnivores, and some are carnivore, but it is their search for these food's that limit what plant's will thrive.