Recommendations

Firstly... i need to know what the scientific name for your 'electric blue' is... since there a few Malawi cichlids that are commonly called that.

Also, you should stick to lake malawi cichlids for your tank- which a buffalo head is not.


-Diana

Okay... since you already have 2 malawi cichlids (and I'm assuming those are the only 2 fish in your tank) you are going to want to ONLY have malawi cichlids in your tank. Forget about SA/CA or african riverine cichlids, because they requier different diet and water chemistry. Just because 2 fish are cichlids CERTIANLY does not mean they can be kept together.

Here's the fish out of your list that you *could* potentially keep with your current 2 fish:

Dolphin Cichlid Cyrtocara morrii
Lavender Mbuna Lodotropheus sprengerae
Electric Blue Johannii Melanochromis johannii
Red Empress Protomelas taeniolatus
Afra Cynotilapia afra
Kenyii Pseudotropheus lombardoi
Blue Zebra Pseudotropheus zebra
Acei Cichlid Psuedotropheus
Peacock Cichlid Anlonocara nyassae

Theses following fish are from lake tangynika and have a similar water chemistry, and could techincally be kept in a 55 gallon, but i reccommend sticking to lake malawi for this tank since your just starting out:

Lemon Cichlid Neolamporologus leleupi
Calvus Cichlid altolamporologus calvus
Gold Head Compressicep Altolamprologus compressicep

Now that you've seen which fish you *could* keep, I will tell you which fish you should keep. Right now you have a hap and a mbuna. Haps are generally larger and prefer open swimming space and can handle diets slightly higher in protien. Mbuna are rock-dwellers, and love lots of rockwork and are vegetarian, meaning a high amount of protien is deadly.

So, you need to decide which direction to take your tank in. Do you want haps or mbuna? For your tank, I actually reccommend mbuna since 55 gallons is on the smallest side for haps - your S. ahli should have more space. You could do a peacock tank (since there are tons of species of peacocks), because they are smaller haps and will live comfortable in a 55 (you cant keep more than one species if your interested in breeding though because all the females look pretty much the same).

You need to make some decisions on which fish to keep, and if you go haps then you could probebly keep both fish you have since yellow labs can handle a *little* more protien than most mbuna. If you wanted to stick to mbuna then you would most likely have to get rid of your ahli.


Haps:
Dolphin Cichlid Cyrtocara morrii
Red Empress Protomelas taeniolatus
Peacock Cichlid Anlonocara nyassae <--- (this is just a general name for peacocks, not a particular species)

^Like I said, these fish should not really be kept in a 55, its on the small side. The peacocks are about the only one of these you could keep in the 55 long term. If you were planning on upgrading it would probebly be okay.

Mbuna:
Lavender Mbuna Lodotropheus sprengerae
Electric Blue Johannii Melanochromis johannii
Afra Cynotilapia afra
Kenyii Pseudotropheus lombardoi
Blue Zebra Pseudotropheus zebra
Acei Cichlid Psuedotropheus

Let us know what direction you want to take, and then we can go from there and plan out the individual species for you... what would be compatible, etc.


-Diana

Nice post diana. I hope plthomp appreciates the time you put in and takes your advice.

I keep a bristlenose pleco in my malawi tanks for algae control, but i've heard of africans being rough with plecos if they go into the african's cave. Mine dont touch the pleco though.

If you wanted to try a pleco I would add a larger one (3 inches plus). It should be okay, they are usually pretty laid back.

Just make sure to acclimate them really well since the water will be a higher pH than they are used to, and provide some hiding places for the pleco (which im sure the africans will take advantage of too).


-Diana

It is so refreshing to read educated people's opinions and experience. I am so tired of all these betta lovin, guppy freaks who keep castles and purple plants in a 75 gallon. Thank goodness for the cichlid forum.

I would advise against the Gold nugget pleco. The Africans will outgrow him and he'l lend up lunch. Bristlenose and commons have always faired well with me.