Yes they are extremely temperamental sometimes. You certainly aren't going to have a large community of fish without an ungodly amount of space when you're dealing with cichlids.

Contrast that with swordtails. Schools of them swimming about just doing their thing. I have a 20 gallon I keep having to move swordtails out of. Because they keep having Young. And there's just not enough space to support them all. 30 or 40 at a time in there from juvenile to adults. The trick with them anymore is finding the nice brick red ones. The silver and green ones are more their natural color. But I grew up in a seventies and eighties with the brick Reds so they always have a special spot for me