Balance for now

[Zanzag]

So my blue acara pair is mean. Like several dead/mauled cichlid tankmates(firemouth and geo. Brasiliensis)

Convicts work okay but females are pretty mean so solo male in the tank.

Other cichlid is my regani who seems to take the brunt of the acara aggression, but other than some frayed fins is no worse for wear.

The regani and convict are both male and flare pretty consistently.
Regani is about 5 inches or so currently so still a sub-adult.

Other factor could be a 6 inch oscillated syno that very vigorously defends its various caves.

Biggest reason for this post would be to point out that my blue acara are a-holes and decidedly need one if not multiple target cichlids to comfortably spawn

 

[Gourami Swami]

I think your issue is probably tank size, and attempting to keep multiple other cichlids with a breeding pair in an enclosed space. Single blue acara you would probably be fine, once breeding most cichlids go from 0 to 100 with aggression. Also looks like the acara are biggest in the tank at the moment- once your regani is larger the Acara's will probably have quite a problem. Tank looks like a 55 or 75? Would only really consider that big enough for one breeding pair of medium-sized cichlids like the acaras.

 

[ryansmith83]

Ditto on the tank size. All cichlid pairs aggressively defend territories, and the smaller the tank, the worse it will be for the other fish.

 

[Zanzag]

Problem I had was more when they were alone there was no spawning interest. Adding other cichlids that are similar in size seems to trigger spawning.