Help Me To Understand Cichlids Please

[MermaidMel]

I can't put this in cichlid section as there are 2 and this is a general question. I have only ever kept angels, rams and kribs in terms of cichlids and found all to be moderately hard to keep.

I have hard water with a neutral pH and I have always wanted to keep other cichlids. My favourite looking are keyhole cichlids and gold sevs and I've researched them. I know that keyholes are peaceful and sevs are moderately peaceful and grow rather large. I like convicts but know they are very aggressive and I can't keep them. I have read that rainbow cichlids and yellow labs are also rather peaceful, can I keep these with keyholes? I am never quite sure which are new world, old world, mbuna, malawi blah blah and I've found a chart but it's all done in the scientific names and gave me a big headache.

What other cichlids are peaceful and could mix with keyholes? Also do I have to have rocks in? Please someone help me out here, got to restock my 50 gallon as soon as possible.

 

[OldMan47]

Rainbow cichlids, Herotilapia multispinosa, are quite peaceful under normal circumstances but can be very territorial when breeding. You must be aware that they love their veggies. That means no real plants in their tank for very long. When I give mine a full layer of duckweed over the entire tank top of my 6 ft tank, it is gone in 2 weeks, not a leaf to be found. That does seem to stimulate them to breed though, they must think of it as conditioning food. This is my rainbows in front of the fake plant background on their tank. The water mine live in comes from the tap at a hardness of 10 degrees and a pH of 7.8.

This is one of the fish in breeding colors with a few fry. It is the one on the left in the previous picture.

When the fish is half black like that, all other fish stay away. They have learned that it means they will be attacked if they come close.

 

[snowflake311]

I have a keyhole and love him. Rams are awesome tank mate for them I keep 2 rams with my keyhole.

Angles, rainbows, other keyholes, and just about any dwarf cichlids would be good.