Your call on that, but IME nobody wants or needs hundreds of any cichlid. Once a pair starts spawning they'll keep going for at least 5-6 rounds before taking a break, producing several hundred fry each time. I've grown out a single spawn of several species of SA or CA cichlids (nicaraguense, cutteri, and oblongums) and have never been able to move all of them properly. The first round was the nicaraguense many years ago, long before the internet. I had an agreement with the owner of an lfs, $1/each for 1.5-2" juvies and a pair of adults so the customers could see what they'd look like grown out. I counted out 123 juvies when I took them out of the growout tanks, and had figured $20 for the adult pair. I actually received $50 for all of them, take it or take them back home, and they had already outgrown my available tankspace. A couple months later most of them were still in a single tank at the lfs, badly stunted and horribly overcrowded.
More recently (around this time last year) I started growing out a spawn of cutteri and another of oblongums that occured within a week. The cutteri grow much faster, and since it was a good-size pair there were around 200 to start with. The Carapo knife couldn't keep up with them when I moved some juvies into his tank to thin their numbers. I sold some, gave some away, and finally ended up culling 80 young adults last February to open up a 55 for the slower-growing oblongums. Ironically, the oblongums were the ones I was growing out to breeding size, thinking to take a bunch to the ACA. I sold some juvies along the way, but lost all but 7 (including my big breeding pair) several months ago. No clue what it was, but it hit them hard and killed them within a week. I suspect an overdose of chloramine in the tap water.
I currently have 3 pairs of cutteri, 1 pair in a 40 breeder with the Carapo knife that eats all their fry while they're still quite small. The other 2 pairs are in a 90 with 6 Tanganykian catfish that serve the same purpose.
