Ok, here is a general crash course on keeping and setting up african tanks.
The fish:
Mbuna : very common in LFS, highly aggressive fish in general. Rock /cave dwelling. Average size 5-7 inches depending on species. They have a long tubular body shape and small fins (better for cave dwelling etc.) . Highly colored, blue, orange, red, stripes and solid colors. males and females usually but not always appear the same. Commonly found types : yellow labs, red zebra, electic blue (auratus) , acie. found in lake malawi . Harem type mouth brooders. Research of species critical to successful tank. Not all but most are herbavore/omnivores. Bottom tank dwellers.
Peacocks : smaller highly colored fish , males highly colored, females usually drab colors (there are exceptions). Easy to breed, will interbreed given chance (not desireable). USually range in size from 5-7 inches. Found in lake malawi. Many are omnivore. One of my favorites for the males brilliant color and the fact that they take less time to reach maturity than haps. These fish like a mix of open water , sandy bottom and rockwork. Middle tank dwelling. Very active, early breeders.
Haps : Hap is short for haplochromines, larger fish (often 9+ inches as adults) similar to sa cichlids in behavior in general. Males and females colorful. Harem breeding mouth brooders. These fish in general will take longer to mature but reach much larger size. these fish found in lake malawi . Some common types are sand sifting haps such as blue dolphin and related fish (blue sand sifters) , red empress, borleyi, venustus (giraff cichlid), many other species can be ordered if your lfs does not carry them . I find these most similar in behavior to new world cichlids. These fish perfer large long sandy bottom tanks with lots of open swimming areas. They are very active swimmers
Many people who keep africans like to something called overstocking as a way to manage aggression. If done correctly it is effective. It involves using more filtering than is rated for the size of the tank and having more fish than you normally would have. It seems to help distract the aggrssive fish from heaping all the aggression on just one or two fish . Its harder to chase a neighbor endlessly when there are 3 or 4 other neighbors ready to steal your cave etc..
Here are some pics of my fish that are from these groups to give you an idea of body shape and general looks . Most of the fish in these pics are still young and have alot of growing yet to do but will give you a general idea. :
Those are all fish from lake malawi and seem to me to be the easiest to obtain when not in a metro/city area. Lake tang. also has some very beautiful diverse fish from the tiniest shell dwellers and brichardi to larger fish such as frontosa . Lake victoria has very colorful fish as well but i have found in my area they are hard to come by and i personally like to see and select my fish i buy but breeders will often have them you can order.
A good place to get info on the different fish species from all three lakes is this websites profile pages :
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/
mbuna :various species in a rockwork setup tank
Peacock:
albino peacock
Ob peacock
stuartgranti male
Haps:
Venustus male and female
male
female
Juvie blue dolphin
red empress male :
