I Need Help With Stocking My West African River Tank!

[SwishySloth]

Here is what I'm curently thinking of doing, I need to know if this will work or not
My tank is 50 Gallon and will be heavily planted.

1 Jewel Cichlid (unsure of exact species)
2 or 3 African Butterfly fish
and 1 Lionhead/Blockhead/Buffalo head Cichlid

Will this work for the tank I have planned? I already have the jewel in a seperate 26 Gallon and I'm very attached to him/her, so I'd really like to keep it

 

[james99]

I'm not sure I would do another cichlid with the jewel, the single I had in a community tank was a terror. I have 6 buffaloheads now and they all live nicely in a group. Maybe a pair of cichlids, an African tetras, a few smaller synodontis, and the butterfly? I had a single butterfly fish, when I was researching them some places said that they work in a group, I never tried it.

 

[SwishySloth]

Thanks! I like the look of congo tetras, however I'm not sure I want to invest in a large school of them considering the only live for a few years and are quite dear at my LFS.

I was hoping my jewel would be okay considering its just on its own, but I guess its not worth the risk, are there any smaller types of eel that could go in this tank?

edit: What synodontis do you recomend? I've never kept any cats before

 

[james99]

Rope fish would work, they're eel like. For synos I have nigervinter in my river themed tank, but there are others that would work. I would look on planet catfish and see what else lives in the rivers, I know there are some that live in the rift lakes.