Just curious, if somene had say a 125 gal tank with bala sharks, a knife fish, a couple clown loaches and some other small fish and say they added a single convict or even two could this set up work?

This is just a hypothetical question, this isn't gonna happen. I'm just curious to see if it would work.

you could try it with one female convict, but be prepared to find her a new home. i wouldn't try it with a male and i sure as anything wouldn't attempt to put a convict pair in there!

it can work,people have kept breeding pairs in large fish communities before
only one way to find out

i agree totally with pica depending on the size of the bala, knife and loaches smaller fish might be stressed to death. I have actually had more luck with more cichlids in a com tank rather then one. I think its because they spend more time fending off each other to worry about other less aggressive fish. Of course in a big enough tank.

i have 2 male convicts in a 30 gal with 2 angel fish and 3 silver dollars the convicts arent aggressive at all.. well in my tank anyways

I would have some concerns for that set up, it may be working now but I expect one con to harrass/kill the other. Silver dollars need a 4ft tank minimum as well, due to their speed.

Personally I would not try it but that’s just my opinion. I would think cons are way to aggressive to even try it.

I would think all the fish would get harassed or even killed. Cons are really aggressive and should not be kept with community fish.

Guess I'm the only one who thinks that though.

Convicts that aren't spawning seem to do fine in my tanks. But I also dont keep neon tetra's and such either. If your Bala's and Loaches are big enough it could be fine.
But, and this is a big but, if you have Convicts that have paired and built a nest they may empty your tank. I had to remove a pair of 3" Convicts from an Oscar tank because they were beating up a 10" Oscar and a Jack Dempsey. The two little Convicts kept an entire half of a 100 gallon to themselves and their nest. And were completely unafraid to square off against fish 10 times their size when they interloped into the Convicts territory.
I moved the Convicts to a Mbuna tank because I had no where else to store them. I planned on restarting a 29 gallon in garage for them on my day off. But after a week with the Mbuna they had settled in. From what I can tell the Mbuna move the tank decor around enough and are active enough it has prevented the Convicts from claiming a specific territory. They have now been in the tank for 4-5(?) months.