What kind of schooling fish could i put with an african cichlid?

i have a 55g with a few community fish in it, i want some kind of schooling fish maybe around 12 fish or so that could live with my african cichlid?

 

i have goldy head tetras w/ my 2 african electric yellows and they seem to do okay

 

I dont want to sound bad, but as the african gets older, it will get alot more agressive. And having it in a community tank is not a great idea. yellow labs are not as agressive, but can get very territorial. Unless you have a tank full of africans or have alot of hiding spots, a community is a bad idea. The only fish that comes to mind, would be mybe giant danios, or somthing that is large and fast enough to get away from the punishment. Africans are one of the cooliest FW fish, I know because I used to have a whole tank of them. But I never had long term sucsess with them in a community tank. Heck it could beat up my green terror, no problem. Good luck, and add other fish at your own risk,

Michael

 

Birchell is right. Before I got into saltwater I had a community tank which the only recommended cichlid is an angelfish. I then had cichlids. There is no way to mix cichlids with regular tropical fish. Cichlids in the beginning will be fine when they are juvanile but once they build territories and grow a bit you'll be in for trouble. Cichlids grow fast, are aggressive fish, and need to be kept with other compatable cichlids. Lets put it this way one of the most aggressive cichlid is gorgeous, only grows to 2 inches but it can and will terrorize others to death is the demasoni. I had 2 cichlids beat the crap out of another one until it was dead...why because it swam in their area. Please do your homework as it's not fair to the fishies to go through the brutal attack they will go through with a cichlid.

My suggestions is either have a tropical community which you could house one angelfish, 10 raspboras ( these are hardy, fun, and scooling fish) a few dwarf gouramis. etc

Or have real fun with a cichlid tank. Cichlids have amazing character, awesome colour for freshwater. Most would suggest not mixing south american and africans but I did but I also studied my fish prior to purchasing. I kept no highly aggressive fish well except for the demasoni. I had frontosa's, yellow labs, geophagus brasilicus, siclasoma sajica, severums. I wouls stay away from, texas, convicts, demasoni, habs, these are mean fish. Good luck.

 

those large Danio do pretty good,

HI,
My local LPS had a sale on those large danio, and I bought a dozen at 3 for dollar and allowed them to acclimate with large african cihclids, the trick is feed the africans to the point they are full and release the school they will move as one fish and the africans seem to leave them alone. Its little bit of luck too.

here's a pic I borrowed to show you how they school

 

Tiger barbs, giant danios, and rainbows are often recommended as good schoolers in an african tank.

A lot of Malawi tank keepers also use Pseudotropheus Acie as a schooling fish, since they are also african cichlids. They get to 6".

 

arulius barbs, fast and mean...

 

ive had african cichlids and i had to get rid of them because they are to aggresive for other fish.even there own kind.ive seen them attack 4 inch big oscars and drive them out of a tank.i dont think any fish get along with oscars.go SW thats wat i did.

 

overcrowd the Africans, disperse the aggression, then provide dither fish...maintane scheduled water changes...and over filtrate the tank..IME

 

i kept roughly 30 guppys in with mine,15 mbuna in a 55 gallon, sized from 4+ inches to 2. tank was running for 2 and a half years without any losses or bullying,i skipped the rocks and covered every inch of the tank with plastic plants{ not the lfs kind} and wood,2 bubble wands across the whole back of the tank{this creates a great distraction,my fish never quite knew what to think of the bubbles}. i don't know why they never ate the guppies but it worked,i always fed flakes and pellets and they were all tank raised africans,thats my best guess,but if i was to do africans again i would do the exact same thing,i'd also caution against getting bigger "tougher" fish as i think the main source of aggression in these fish is usually over competition for resources/ie terrotory/and the africans will decimate just about anything over time.their relentlessness is aweinspiring,that could be another reason the guppy's worked now that i think of it,they're just to small to be considered competition