Yep, they are cichlids. I had a 10G at work that had Neolamprologus brichardis (now pulcher?). I started with three. Two paired up, killed the 3rd, then had 40 babies a month later. I was careful with those guys and about 6+ months later I had 18 small fish pairing up and staking out territory. I took a bunch of them to the LFS to donate. One of my big fish had died, so the remaining large fish paired up and had more. I finally stopped taking out the fry and left it to survival of the fittest. One of the original fish lived another 5 years and was paired with her grandson. There were about 6~10 fish at any one time spanning about 8 generations. Then one day I came to work and they were all dead -- high ammonia in the water so I suspect a mis-sprayed cleaning agent by the cleaning crew, but I'll never really know. If not for that, I would still have that tank running. Closest thing to self-perpetuating I ever had.
btw, those are amazing photos, Joel. What plants did you have in there? With the crushed coral, my pH was always around 7.6 and I couldn't get anything to grow for very long.