How to pick fish for community tank?

[justinduke]

Yeah I was thinking maybe 3-4 species. Just not sure how to know which ones I shouldn't mix?

 

[greenearthlawns]

If you want to be able to have a good of mix nicely colored cichlids that will tolerate eachother and be able to get them breeding with no risk of crossbreeding (you must be able to spend plenty of time observing them), you want to have types that are as differently colored as possible... In my tank I have 8 different species breeding successfully with a very low amount of aggression ( kenyi/ yellow lab/ golden mbuna males are the only ones that dont get along but they aren't fighting often only when trying to spawn they get a liitle feisty but they are mbuna after all). the ones that i have are all pretty different so I haven't had any crossbreeding, but I continue to watch them every day to see what they are up too... sometimes things work that you dont expect and things dont work that you think should or others say have worked so you have to experiment and make sure you have an extra tank on hand incase you need to change things around what are your top five species choices that you would like the most?