African butterfly is the kinda fish that you make as the centerpiece fish, the tank should accomodate them. They dont like alot of water movement, plus any robust fish, such as a cichlid, would just stress it. Plus I think most cichlids would mess with it too mcuh and end up nailing it one day/night.
If you want something like a convict, again, you must accomodate the tank for them. Build the tank around them and choose proper tankmates. Any aggressive cichlid would terrorize anything in the tank that cant defend itself. Its not to say it could never work though. I suggest small peaceful cichlids, or you can have something like a Con, jsut dont have any vulnerable fish in the tank. It wont be a suprise if it kills some of them.