Colorful mix for 46 gallon

Go for African. They have more colorful fish. American Cichlids, most of them are pretty big for your 46g tank. There are some small American Cichlids, but not as colorful as African Cichlid, IMO.

Peacock cichlids or anything of the aulonocara name are extremely attractive and mild mannered. They get to be about 6" or so. Males are bright colored and females very drab. with over filtration you could keep two or three males of different colors(there are many) and possibly a yellow labidochromis as they are rather mild mannered as well. They require a PH of about 8.0-8.5 range if your water is conditioned properly. If not it is very easy to raise your ph and kh. Just add some crushed coral to your subtrate. I have been considering starting a peacock tank in my 55 gallon but I just cant find any that arent either full grown or female(ugly). If you want to breed them get two females for every male. being mouth brooders they are interesting to watch breed (or so I hear). verse has a thread in this board somewhere with a video link posted of his peacocks breeding. It will give you and idea of the breeding behavior and the difference between a male and female.

here is the link if he still has the movie posted

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13013&highlight=fish+porn

Higly suffecient filtration for what I am talking about. Standard practices with africans are to overstock so that they cannot claim territory. It can quell agressions. With that kind of filtration you could easily have an overstocked mbuna tank. They come in several different colors and are slightly more common than peacocks. The yellow labs are probably the most peaceful of this group. Check out anything tropheus or psuedotropheus and see if they are to your liking, but imho I would go with the peacocks.

yes go with africans...