choosing varieties of african cichlids

i currently have a few tanks larger than 100 us gal, and was considering starting one or two of them as african tanks, how in the world do you determine which species, is compatable with the next, some of these fish are kinda costly, i cannot afford, to put a 100 dollar fish in the tank, then find out the next day, it was lunch for one of the others, or dinner, supper anyone ?, but seriously, is it a hit and miss thing, i know about sizing, almost any larger fish, is going to munch on the smaller ones, thats a given, are some territorial, i would be starting a tank with all the same size fish, i'd just like some advice, as to which combinations, you guys/gals have had success with....mike

I don't have a combo tank . All mine are species tanks . But a bit of advice . Any Species that you want to put in your tank , look it up to see what the Females look like . You would not want to put two males of different species in the same tank if they look like the others female .
Case in point ; Kenyii males are yellow and the females are blue , where as the P. Saulosi are the exact opposite , The Males are blue and the females are yellow.
Both males would harass the other male simply to Mate !!
Another thing . Once you have fish in the tank for awhile , they establish territories . If you add another male later , rearrange the tank at the same time . this will keep the new guy from getting picked on by all the others . They will all be setting up new territories .

Mike about a year ago all I knew about fish was that my husband liked African cichlids and he had a tank once upon a time. On my journey to surprise him with the 135g we currently have I got the crash course. With the help of my LFS (picked one with very knowledgeable people thank goodness) I picked out about 40 assorted fish that were compatible....even when I wanted to go down that road of "oh those colors look nice but almost the same" the sales lady told me just what Lifeisgood stated......you don't want to do that and here is why she explained. Well I left feeling good about the almost $300 purchase.........yeah I joined this site AFTER I had already purchased everything but oh well live and learn. We have OB Zebras, Cherry Red Zebras, Demasoni, Johanni, Clown Loaches, Albino Zebras, Venustus, Rustys, Peacocks, Yellow Labs, Borleyi Redfin, and 1 Pleco. We've added (because we have lost a few along the way) Socolofi, Trophs, Petricola catfish, Auratus, Acei, Compressiceps. The sizes of these range from 1.5" to 5" with 2 to 6 of each. This seems to work for us and every now and then one tries to be king of the tank so every month we change up the setup so new territories can be established.....again just like Lifeisgood stated to do. Then if that doesn't work it's time for a little time out in a breeder box to cool things off. Hey you are in the right place cus there are tons of folks here with other assortments that I constantly have to Google search......lol and I'm sure they will chime in with their comments.

Are you wanting to breed. If not a all male tank looks nice. Peacocks, Japan and mbuna generally do well together. My tank has at least one speices(spelling, its to early for that) from every lake and some of the rivers. Haven't had any problems with aggression or hybribnization

yellow labs and red zebras are very good looking and probably the least aggressive. and somewhat affordable ;)

Guest wrote:

yellow labs and red zebras are very good looking and probably the least aggressive. and somewhat affordable ;)

Yeah but hybrids are a huge risk with those two species.

and the bread fast..i have 8 fry sitting in my 3g tank as speak

The good news with red zebra and yellow lab hybrids it's it's easy to tell, so then you just feed the fry to something else.
JB