Cichlid mean live eater. I had a black vale tail angle fish that lived very well with neon tetras and cardinal fish but if you put anything else in there it was gone just as fast as you put it in. he could go from one side of a 55 to the other in about 1 second mouth wide open his dorsal fin would breach the water surface and his anal fin would be on the gravel. He was about 13 years old when he died. I have had many cichlids over the years some are better with others, they are like anything else the larger the tank the better. you can aqua scape your tank with lots of rock that has alot of hole and places for smaller fish to go and hide from the bullies. THen you can have a bunch of small fish with the cichlids you will also need live plants in there make it natural. cat fish I hate them in a tank they uproot plants all the time. There is even a couple that will eat fish if they can catch them. I had one when I lived in Edmonton it went back to the LFS as every night it would uproot all the plants.

Bill