The Cichlid Aquarium by Paul Loiselle is a great book for general cichlid
keeping, he covers a lot of great information in a pretty small and
inexpensive book.
VERY general rule of thumb is RiftLake and Central Americans need hard
alkaline water, West Africans and South Americans prefer slightly soft
acidic water.
Many keepers of Malawi and Tanganyikans put salt in the water, but I have
read from reliable sources that these lakes are not especially saline.
Except for the chromides, Etroplus, I don't belive any cichlids actually
need brackish water. It is true that many cichlids are very adaptable.
"Ciclasoma" urophthalmus often lives in seawater in Central America. For
the fish you listed, I personally don't see any advantage to using brackish
water, but fairly hard water would be good.
Paul

"GrlIntrpted" wrote in message
. net...

When in the local pet shop, they have various types of cichlids, the one's
that are in the brackish water have more color to them and live in what I
think to be coral, then they have the regular freshwater fish, and finally
they have the freshwater cichlids that are in my tank:
Firemouths, Red Devils, Jaguars, Rusties, Convincts, Jack Dempsy, Green
Terrors, Jewel Fish etc..... Upon a closer look at the brackish tanks in
the store, I noticed that they had a few Rusties in there! I spoke with a
sales clerk and he said that most of the freshwater cichlids can adjust to
brackish conditions.

So now I"m confused, ( I thought that this was a freshwater cichlid forum
but we talk about fish that are not really freshwater quite often) I can't
figure out what conditions my fish need, I wonder if keeping them in
freshwater is incorrect and that perhpas I need to change to a brackish
tank. I'm trying to figure out whether there is a book that I can
purchase
to educate myself on the differences in Cichlids, I would like to
understand
their background and where they come from and was wondering if there is a
book like that on the market, or perhaps a website, an easy to understand
manual or something or if anyone with experince that is willing to assist
me
would be much appreciated.

Mariana