I suppose its just me, but I don't see the appeal of these fish. Maybe someday i will who know's... 
IMO, they have neat colors, personalities, and it's like a combination of keeping tropheus and synodontis. Similar to my experiences with tropheus, they can be delicate when young, don't always eat well, often seem to develop sickness easily after coming home from the LFS, and are hard to treat if they become sick. However, once they are older they are much hardier. Similar to synos, they are personable, don't grow terribly fast at all and live a long time given proper care. So the longer you have them, the more attached and the greater the feeling of achievement. You don't see big ones very often for a reason, but it's not too hard to find thin ones at a LFS.