New to cichlids, new tank stocking

Well if it was my tank I'd scratch the pleco. I'd try either kribs or some type of dwarf cichlid. I'm more of a central American / south American guy though. It's up to you but look into the Apistogrammas Im absolutely in love with the cockatoo cichlid triple red or double red. But it's all your choice in the end. Kribs and African butterfly should work I'm not sure about the Gourami you could probably get away with it.

A small tank like a 36 doesn't have enough "floorspace" for more than one bonded pair of cichlids to eastablish a territory. It's also too small for most Africans, and the few species suitable aren't the bright and colorful ones. You can't simply toss any random male/female pair of cichlids into a tank and expect them to live happily ever after. Best bet is to get 5-6 young ones (of the same spcies) and grow them out until you have an established breeding pair.

If you want babies I would start with 6 young kribs and a school of some "dither fish" probably a small barb, but maybe not tiger barbs. Once you get a pair of kribs, you want to remove the other kribs.

You could also start with one of the other two species with a group of 6 sub-adults. The African Dwarf Butterfly Cichlid and Egyptian mouthbrooder are a little harder to find.

When you say you want africans do you mean rift lake species? You can keep dwarf mbuna in a tank that size but you will be looking at a species only tank. The perfect species for a tank that size is Ps saulosi. The females are a beautiful yellow and the males are blue with black stripes. You could keep a couple males with several females which will give you a lot of activity and color. You could also keep a few small rift lake catfish or a small pleco.

Are you going to get the fish locally, or online? I feel like I'm fairly familiar with the basic cichlids, and Egyptian mouthbrooders and African butterfly cichlids are two I've never heard of nor seen for sale by other hobbyists - though I'm sure you can find them on Aquabid or Live Aquaria.

I agree with Todd that 30" of floor space is not much room for cichlids, definitely not room for 3 pairs of fish no matter how small they are - their territories span too large a radius. Finding fish in mated pairs can be difficult except for common fish like rams and Apistos.

Assuming you're going to choose local fish - and that your LFS doesn't specialize in rarer cichlids - for a 30" tank, I'd make it a single species setup and choose something like Hemichromis (jewel cichlids) or kribensis. There are fancier types of kribs than just the classic ones, if you prefer.

I wouldn't do gouramis, maybe hatchetfish though since most fish don't notice them. Kribs are mellower than jewels, you could definitely have some other fish with them, even around spawning time. I keep mine with tetras (bleeding hearts and silver tip) but barbs could do well with them too. I particularly like gold barbs or black ruby barbs. Both are colorful and active, I'm sure your daughter would enjoy them

Jewels can be a little psycho compared to kribs. Like kribs, they do breed readily, and they have big broods. If your main goal was to breed them, I'd make it a single species tank with jewels, maybe keep some interesting nerites with them - although I'm not 100% positive that's safe either.

P. saulosis like blue2fyre suggested are some of the smallest Malawi cichlids (aka mbuna) along with yellow labs. P. saulosis are a lot flashier colored I don't know if 36 gallons is quite big enough, but probably ok. It all depends on whether you like that rocky look without many plants. Mbuna are very hard on plants, they are herbivorous and like to graze on algae and plants.

As far as plecos go, I imagine they would be a threat to the eggs of a spawning pair, and two plecos especially would add a significant bioload. Plecos also make keeping live plants more difficult. If you like plecos for the interest, that's one thing, but just to eat algae - I wouldn't. I never see my bristlenose at all. Keeping plecos can be a lot of fun for sure, when they breed for you, but just one pleco is not, IME...and there are equally good algae eaters who create far less waste.