Going To Go The African Route

[CrazyAirborne]

Well first things first, my tank is 45.5 inches long, 13 wide, 19.5 high. its a bit of a weird dimension I know, but its what I have to work with. I have a well planted community setup in it right now, but Im starting to realize keeping a nice planted tank takes alot of work, and Its been almost a year now that Ive been going the planted route. My water is liquid rock and Im ready for some african cichlids.

My ideas:

I really like Pseudotropheus saulosi. I like the colors, especially since the male and female are both great.

Im thinking a largish group of them, as the centerpiece fish, and then maybe a couple other randoms? What do you guys think. Is this doable with my 45 inch tank?

Maybe a trio of Astatotilapia latifasciata?
Cynotilapia afra look awesome.
Anything else that isnt blue or yellow like the Saulosi.

Im really just wanting something colorful.

Also would one Synodontis nyassae Catfish work?

Bear in mind Im in the UK, so if Ive posted a fish that is crazy hard to get here, then tell me! Thanks.

 

[rifty]

possibly but you would have build your rock up high like a marine reef tank id get 12 saulosi 3 males 9 females.
Astatotilapia latifasciata are a fish i dont keep so dont know if they would work
afras on the other hand i keep lots id go for ndonga chiwindi or hara

 

[CrazyAirborne]

thanks Rifty, anyone have any other thoughts? would that Syno Cat work? I know they get kinda big

 

[Malawi MaD]

What filtration you going to be using?

The Astatotilapia latifasciata do blend quite well with malawi's even though they are from separate lake's but as far as i know they are pretty hard to come by at the moment (decent ones that is)
A nice group of saulosi will be fine i recon and as Rifty says the hara or chiwindi are both beautiful cyno afra species if you wanted to choose them. I think 3 species in groups of 6 to 12 will look apart (more of a natural scene) rather than loads of species all put together. Just as long as there is enough rockwork for each of the males and for the females to retreat to. The Syno catfish could get a little large i think, but i have never kept this variant before so it could work. Plus there is other alternatives if you chose not to have the njassae (synodontis petricola/ Synodontis multipunctatus these stay smaller to the njassae)

This is the stocking id go for ( Making sure enough filtration is available)
Saulosi- 2 to 3 Male/ 6 to 10Female
Cyno afra (depending on what species you choose) 1 or 3Males/4 to 6 Female
Then as a third species maybe some variant of Pseudotropheus Elongatus or pseudo long pelvic maybe (very nice fish) There is so many species to choose from but you just have to choose the right ones to make a good, correctly stocked tank.